Mobile payments are increasingly being used by consumers, a movement that must be top of mind for retailers in order to gain sales this holiday season or risk potentially losing shoppers. This holiday season, the following trends will emerge:
Rise at the Retailer of EMV Chip Cards Use
Credit card agencies and banks have been flooding consumers with these nifty new, high-security chip-based cards. Retailers will need to have their POS systems ready to receive EMV chip cards as more and more consumers attempt to pay with them. Any retailers that don’t use the chip cards are subject to financial exposures and ultimately consumer backlashes.
Increasing use of mobile payments via smartphones
Retailers looking to clinch sales will need to enable mobile payments via consumer’s smartphones. Whether they adopt Apple Pay, Google Android Pay, Samsung Pay, or any other such mobile payment systems,. Retailers will need to ensure that their POS systems are mobile-POS (mPOS) ready.
Guiding consumers at checkout will be key
Providing customer service is essential to bringing in sales and this year it will be more important than ever at the checkout. Sales associates will need to assist shoppers new to using EMV credit card chip readers as well as those just adopting mobile payment solutions. Employers should train their employees how to use both options, otherwise, they risk losing those customers and adding to the already long wait lines expected on Black Friday and peak shopping days.
Prepare for hacking attacks
Hackers are eager for the holiday season to get underway, because they are poised to attack and grab thousands or even millions of credit card records. With the vast number of conventional credit cards still in use, retailers are sitting ducks. Retailers should not only be putting security at the forefront, they might as well get ready for breaches in spite of their attempts to prevent them.
Embrace the mobile-mindful consumer
Retailers need to make sure they plug into the mobile mindset of consumers this holiday season. Consumers will be using their mobile phones to shop while in the store, to share with friends and family what they are buying or want to buy, and to remind them of what to get as gifts, etc.
In that sense, mobile payments are one part of the mobile mindset of consumers. Retailers would be smart to get into the entire chain of use that consumers will do with their mobile devices.
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