5 Ways Contactless Payments will Benefit your Business this Holiday Season

[Helen]

If you haven’t heard of contactless payments before, consider this your crash course. They are the chosen payment method for the future of business and are here to stay.

A contactless payment, as the name suggests, doesn’t require any physical contact between the buyer’s smartphone or credit card and the POS. This type of payment is made possible using near field communication (NFC) and a type of radio frequency identification (called RFID). When a card or smartphone is 10 centimeters or less away from the reader a payment can be completed. 

UPDATE: Tap to Pay on iPhone has launched in the US! Read the full product announcement. 

Contactless payments come with a wide range of benefits to both you, the seller, and your customers. With the holidays around the corner, we wanted to share with you the top 5 ways your business will thank you for accepting contactless payments this holiday season and beyond. 

1. Save time at checkout

Keep the line moving during your busiest time of day or night. Your customers can pay with their phone,  probably already in their hand or in their back pocket, saving precious minutes on each transaction.

2. Meet your customers where they are

Holiday lines stretching out the door? Have your team hit the floor to accept payments on an phone to clear the line, or to meet customers where they are and take payments anywhere in store. 

3. Reduce contact on every transaction

During cold and flu season many people prefer to limit unnecessary surface contact when they are out and about. Give your customers the choice to use their phone or a contactless card at checkout. 

4. Contactless payments are secure

Contactless payments are generally more secure than magstripe card payments. With a contactless payment the data associated with the card is encrypted and changes constantly, making this payment type much more difficult to hack than a typical magstripe card. Learn more.

5. No hardware needed with payment links

No reader or terminal? No problem. Download the Square App to your iPhone, enter a custom amount or add a handful of your most popular items and you are ready to go. Learn more about Tap to Pay on iPhone. 

But wait, there's more, with Square Online Checkout links, Payment Links with Virtual Terminal, Square Invoices can help to ensure you will never miss a sale.

[TCSlaguna]

Great information @Helen 

We have customers who only carry their smartphones with them. They will regularly ask if we accept contactless payments. We do, of course. But if we didn't... we would lose the sale. 

I personally do contactless payments whenever possible because it is more secure. If the store doesn't do contactless, I will pay in cash. 

[Helen]

Thanks @TCSlaguna! I use my contactless card a lot too. I don't use my phone as often but it's great to know I could use it in case I forget my wallet. 

[Hailey]

I can definitely confirm that I was able to make purchases because stores offer phone contactless. I have forgot my wallet too many times but ALWAYS have my phone. 

[DLRosenberg]

@TCSlaguna - same here- seems the younger generation (OMG I sound old) love using their phone to pay... 

We try and take every payment form we can- the bigger net we cast the better in terms of payments.

[Tamyra_Paunchy]

I use contactless at the farmer's market, with the Square Terminal. I haven't had any issues with it so far other than sometimes the screen can be a bit touchy. I am constantly having to tell people to move it up a bit more or down, to hit that 'sweet spot' on the screen where the phone or card registers and we hear that beep. Love the feature though. It's great in terms of minimizing touch in public spaces where safety is already a concern for everyone.

[Hailey]

safety, speed, customers not forgetting their card in the card reader haha 

[homeprogreen]

I would say it’s reached the point that probably 40 to 50% of my card sales are now contactless via either a phone or the majority of card taps. Definitely makes life easier and since I use the Square Register with customer facing display the contactless option is very clearly shown to customers 

[Helen]

Thanks @homeprogreen! Did you notice it becoming more popular with your customers over time or was there a tipping point, like the pandemic?

[homeprogreen]

It’s been a process over time. It really seems to be an age thing. The younger customers automatically just assume it’s an available option, the vast majority of my customers are older though so it’s taken time for them to trust it and accept it. Lost count of the number of my older customers that I’ve had to walk thru setting it up on their phones after I explain that it’s actually the safest form of payment they can use to pay for purchases. Once they use it a few times though they love it

[Helen]

I see! You are very good to take the time, I'm sure your customers appreciate it.

[Doran]

We use contactless payment both in the shop and at events.  It really speeds up checkout!  I like how fast the approval or denial comes through. 

It is a bit of a learning curve because so many people don't know how to use it.  So I always say just tap your card over the light when it comes on.  (I have the SQ Register and Terminal.) Customers get so excited.   

The other day the internet was down and we all had to swipe cards and what a pain!! We really realized how spoiled tap to pay made us.

[Lovewell]

I would say about 65%-70% of our payments would be considered contactless. We have a square register so customers using anything other than cash i.e. phone, card, gift card. Is all done by the customer. There are the random occasions where we have a little glitch and that slows us down but for the most part we are pretty speedy with contactless, chip, or cash!

[rtfulk]

The new square stand has made contactless payments easier for us.  It seems faster than the white bluetooth chip reader. I don't know if it is the register or the fact that we upgraded our 5 year old ipads to work with the new stands. About 70-80% of our cards are contactless or apple pay or google pay.

[Hailey · Accepted solution]

HAVE YOU HEARD?? Square launched Tap to Pay on iPhone for US today! Read the product update here.

CC: @DLRosenberg @rtfulk @Lovewell @Doran @Tamyra_Paunchy @homeprogreen @TCSlaguna 

[homeprogreen]

I hadn’t heard. So we can accept tap payments on our phones instead of using the terminal or the contactless chip reader?

[Ryan_M]

@homeprogreen Yes for USA sellers! Tap to Pay on iPhone lets sellers of all sizes accept contactless payments directly from their iPhone, with no additional hardware required and at no additional cost to the seller.

[homeprogreen]

Oh cool. I am going to have to check that out. Might be a handy back up to have if the register goes down 

[SammyGrace2414]

We use tap all the time in our business. Much more since the beginning of the Pandemic but definitely used it prior. Personally I use tap with my iPhone or Apple Watch to make purchases about 99% of the time. The only time I don't is when I buy gas at the pump and I only insert my card there because if you tap it only pre-auth's $100 and my gas guzzler is always $200+ to fill lol. 

I am looking forward to this feature coming to Canada, my staff will definitely utilize their iPhone to accept payments!! 

[Abigails_stl]

This has been great! I had to use my phone at an event when Square for Retail was crashing on the iPad and it was definitely great to have a backup. It would be even better if you could use your camera on your phone through the Square app to scan barcodes. It takes awhile to manually search each item.

[Helen]

Thanks @Abigails_stl! Sorry to hear you were having trouble with the Square for Retail app your event but glad you did have something to fall back on.