The Increase in Contactless Payments – Will we become a cashless society?
Do I even carry cash anymore? My phone is now my wallet? Will I ever use up this change? These are the questions that we might well be asking ourselves about if (more like when) we will move to a cashless society.
A report by UK Finance revealed that in 2020, contactless payments surged by 12% in the United Kingdom, reaching 9.6 billion, compared with 2019. Contactless payments accounted for 27% of all payments. This came from the world’s recovery from the pandemic, which had caused the fall in card payments due to the lack of spending in the uncertain times we were once in.
The increase in the number of contactless card payments encouraged a surge in the volume of low-value transactions, this means that people are moving away from the usage of physical payment methods (coins and cash). Once again, the move into favouring contactless payments is due to the pandemic, as businesses preferred contactless payments as they reduced the spread of the virus.
Lloyds Bank says that consumers in the UK use contactless payments in nearly 90% of face-to-face payment transactions, an increase from 65% before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. This again furthers the idea that we are slowly moving towards favouring (and solely using) contactless payments.
This potential future will hopefully lead to demand for inputting more EPOS machines into each shop/store to help with the increase in contactless payments, or another method of contactless payment is having a system similar to the automated Amazon shops. These shops just need you to scan the app upon entry, bag as you shop (the baskets/trolly scan each item that enters it) and then just walk out, and you’ll be charged to your Amazon account with the receipt sent via email. Now, if this method was introduced to multiple shops/stores, then it means that engineers would need to be available to help with the constant management of these sites.
It’s an exciting time to join our field engineering journey as we have lots of brand-new exciting roles for you to sink your teeth into. Join us today! Contact Gemma Phipps for more information on how we can support you.