There was once a time when small businesses would only accept cash as a means of payment, but many of those same businesses are now replacing traditional tills with contactless technology as tech-savvy consumers demand quicker and easier cashless alternatives.

Indeed cashless payments are no longer a luxury but a customer expectation.

Debit card payments leapfrogged cash as the most popular form of payment in the UK for the first time according to data published earlier this year, 12 months sooner than expected. Hardly surprising given there are now more than 100 million contactless cards in circulation.

According to industry figures from UK Finance, British consumers used their debit cards 13.2 billion times last year, up 14% from 2016, while the number of cash transactions fell by 15% to 13.1 billion during the same period. Over the next decade the number of cash payments is predicted to halve to just 6.4 billion, the equivalent of 16% of all transactions.

Amid the rise of payment apps such as Monzo and Apple Wallet, businesses – no matter what size – need to prepare for a cashless future or risk being left behind.

With churches now using contactless technology to take donations and a number of Big Issue vendors and buskers doing the same, there is no excuse for smaller businesses.

Out with the old, in with the new

Tech-savvy consumers are the future, according to Bosh McKeown, the CEO and co-founder of independent London-based coffee chain The Attendant, and he doesn’t want to be left behind.

The Attendant operates across four sites in Central London and made the transition to a cashless operation in April after analysing a number of data points and recognising the most popular demographic that was walking into its store.

“Our cash payments continued to decrease rapidly year on year, so we’ve known for a while that we wanted to go cashless, we just needed the guts to go and do it,” McKeown says.

As well as improving processes for staff, he says going cashless sets his venture apart from competitors because it has the ability to attract and retain modern day consumers who prefer the speed and efficiency of a contactless world.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com