APPLE INC. With point-of-sale mobile payments continuing to expand at a rapid pace, are self-serve equipment operators keeping up with what consumers are looking for?
A panel of self-service equipment providers covering a range of applications offered their takes on how they're meeting this challenge during the
Self-Service Innovation Summitat the Loews Coral Gables in
The session was arranged in response to the projected growth of the global mobile payment market: a 14.3% combined annual growth rate through 2032, driven by the rising popularity of contactless payments and a surge in loyalty benefits within the mobile environment, according to
As self-service use cases for cashless payments have surged in recent years, self-service providers find themselves tasked with keeping on top of available technologies.
Technologies expand, bring new challenges
"As an operator, keeping your eye on enabling technologies, seeing the bumps in the road, the blockers, and paying attention to what's coming starts to give you that signal that what might have been a challenge now, six months from now — or knowing it's coming — can be removed once you kind of know what the lay of the land is," Rasmussen said at the outset of the session.
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Panelist
The value proposition for Acuna, who has since expanded Qu!ck Scan&Go markets to the
For panelist
"The tap nowadays is almost mandatory," Arwin said in reference to "tap and pay" cashless. "People expect it. They like the tap feature." About 78% of his customers pay by debit or credit card, and most want "tap and pay."
Payment card standards pose challenges
Farmer's Fridge, a
These are standards mandated by payment card brands to control cardholder data and reduce credit card fraud. Meeting these audited standards can prove challenging for businesses whose main focus is not managing payments. Hence, those that accept card payments often find that it is best to have a third-party payment provider handle customer payment information.
"Never possess the payment information," Saupe said. "You don't want to actually handle it yourself."
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The other panelists agreed.
"Our software provider handles the payment interaction," said
"I'm in the vending space, I'm not in that (payment) space, so we rely on the third-party companies that provide the readers, and once you do that, they'll tell you right away, 'we're PCI compliant…and you basically don't have to worry about it," Arwin agreed.
"Essentially it's a build or buy decision," Rasmussen said. "Do you want to write your own payment, go through that whole certification process and have that ownership and drive it, or do you want to focus on your business and let the experts stick to what they do?"
Selecting a third-party vendor
Given the need to work with a third-party payment provider, the question naturally presented itself: How does an operator choose a payment provider?
The panelists agreed that payment rates play an important role in deciding what technology vendor to work with.
In addition to rates, Arwin said he seeks a provider that can meet his customers' needs — do they want tap to pay, do they want to use student cards or employee cards?
This, of course, requires keeping abreast of customer needs, which change with evolving technology. Arwin relies on customer feedback through his credit card readers and micro market kiosks.
Meeting changing customer needs
"You have to get a little innovative if you want to serve clients as their needs change and their demands change," Rasmussen said. "They start to look for your willingness to be able to do that."
To this end, Acuna said he is developing a robot that you scan with your camera QR code which has the same capabilities as his payment app.
Looking to the future, the panelists agreed that loyalty rewards will play a bigger role, something that the credit card companies are offering.
"It just gets people to buy more than they probably would buy otherwise because they're allured with the points… Even if it's not that great, they're still going to utilize that," Arwin said. "I see more and more marketing opportunities for the use of the credit cards and for the reward programs. It just gets people to buy more."
Digital wallet value-added services
Digital wallet vendors
Saupe said he expects Farmer's Fridge will eventually utilize such value added services.
"I think it will come," he said. "They'll get better at it. It makes sense to us to use those services rather than our own (loyalty and rewards) services…If it is part of the
Biometrics on the way
The panelists also agreed biometrics payments are on the way, noting they have seen them at international airports.
"I think biometrics are coming," Abecassis said. "I think they're far more accurate and they're significantly faster."
Arwin, for his part, already offers biometric payments in his micro market kiosks. The user can create an account with their thumb print and fund the account and purchase using their thumb print.
Stored value systems: a continuing challenge
The challenge of offering stored value payment accounts for students and employees was raised during the question-and-answer period. In response, Saupe said it is necessary to work with vendors that specialize in these programs, which usually require authorized payment equipment.
"It's a lot of work to get these things to work," said Saupe, noting that there is no "universal integration" for integrating payment devices with these systems.
In the meantime, self-service operators need to keep abreast of customer needs and new ways to address them.
"The challenge I think we have with all of these new types of payments is earning their (customers') trust," Abecassis said.
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