By: John Clarke, CEO and Co-Founder, Worldnet Payments
As worldly circumstances and technological advancements influence consumer behavior, independent software vendors have an opportunity to deliver technology that helps merchants easily embrace the latest payment experiences consumers have come to expect.
Self-service or “unattended” environments are the new expectation and 2022 will officially be the watershed moment for self-checkout technology, adoption, and innovation.
Unattended is Not a Trend, It’s the Expectation:
- 73% of consumers want self-service retail experiences
- 85% of all customer service interactions will start with self-service by 2022
- 78% of consumers who paid using a digital wallet say they prefer to shop in unattended environments
- The self-service market is expected to reach USD $68B by the end of 2026
To help you build out a self-service strategy that will grow your recurring revenue we went a little deeper with an industry report called: “Self-Serve Experiences Are Driving the Future of Payments.” We cover the unattended payments and contactless payments solutions that set self-service environments apart including, just walk out, BOPIS, self-ordering kiosks, self-scanning kiosks, in-store mobile, e-wallets and more. Let’s break down some key pieces you’ll want to consider when building out your strategy.
Less Friction = More Sales
Consumers now expect and demand payment solutions that anticipate and address their needs no matter where, when or how they choose to shop. The same rules apply to unattended retail and contactless payments. However, you don’t get many chances to impress folks – if the payment process is too complex, they’ll remember it. But if the process is beautifully frictionless, intuitive and engaging, they’ll love you for it, which in turn increases loyalty (and as a result, revenue).
Digital Wallet Usage has Skyrocketed
Digital wallets have become one of the most used forms of payments. Seventy-one percent of consumers will at least sometimes use a digital wallet instead of entering credit card information directly, according to a 2021 a 2021 ClearSale consumer behavior study.
This is very, very good news for ISVs. Why? More than 78% of consumers who paid for a recent purchase using a digital wallet say they prefer to shop in unattended environments – making digital wallet users almost four times likelier to use those channels. Consumers love convenient, contactless payment experiences that make it easier for them to shop, again and again.
Autonomous retail is not just for big players
Once considered a “high-tech” experiment, autonomous retail is the future of retail.
Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology set a new bar for frictionless consumerism. We like to help brands like Nourish + Bloom adopt this high-tech business model and level-up the experience by adding hybrid features like 24/7 availability, a bistro, and robotic delivery to the mix.
With these solutions customers scan their phones to walk-in, grab their items and walk-out (see more on this UST solution here). Customers can also order food from the bistro and pay by scanning a QR code that connects to their digital wallets, or they can pay at vision-checkout kiosks with traditional methods like credit cards and e-wallets.
Build an Integrated Journey
The buyer’s journey – once envisioned as a fairly straight path from the first point of contact between the retailer and the customer to the eventual purchase – now resembles nothing so much as a spiderweb. Customers enter, leave and re-enter the “journey” from multiple touchpoints, zipping along threads from app to social to in-store to website to AI-driven kiosks and more, with the entire process seamlessly focused on one central goal: an invisible checkout.
Your payment solution must provide consumers with as many options as possible to make purchases on their own terms, whether that’s via their mobile wallets, a mobile app, a QR code, traditional credit cards or more.
An integrated payments solution is a comprehensive payment processing solution that integrates all of your processes and unifies your payment data. This allows ISVs and merchants to have an insightful view on their customer interactions. With the right partner, you can easily offer multiple payment options for a unified customer experience that’s engaging, personalized, and consistent across any channel.
Get the Experts Involved
Find a partner on the payment side, because payments is a completely different discipline than point of sale. You don’t want to be dealing with one payment partner for eCommerce, one for in-store, and one for unattended or m-pos. You need one relationship with a partner who can solve those complex integration problems to help you create a superior solution.
Get the Full Report to Discover:
- Why unattended solutions are now the expectation
- Which new types of self-serve solutions are on the horizon
- Unique ways to engage shoppers and deliver memorable experiences
- How to integrate these solutions into your existing channel mix
Meet Us At RetailNOW
Worldnet Payments is proud to be a part of the RSPA community which gives innovators, channel leaders, and other key players in the industry the chance to collaborate and create seamless solutions for our customers.
We’re attending RetailNOW this summer and look forward to the opportunity to not only network, but to show you and your team how Worldnet’s software and APIs can make it easy you to unify your unattended, in-store, online, and mobile payment experiences.
Send us your feedback to this report at ussales@worldnettps.com and let us know if we can help you tackle your latest payment challenge.
