I know I have praised contactless payments in the past, but for the first time someone paid by swiping their smartphone across the terminal. How cool is that? You don’t even need a plastic card to pay!
I have two customers who pay using their watch. Always amuses me when customers think that by using contactless payment with their card we retailers pay no fees!
This contactless stuff is baaaaaaaad for us. Paying by card has always been a barrier to entry for a lot of people just because of the "hassle" or delay but now everyone is seeing the ease of contactless; we're even seeing the type of person who you would expect to be a straight cash person exclaiming, "I can use contactless for that!" I believe my cash/card sales ratio is going to tip dramatically in the direction of cards in the next couple of years and probably won't be far off 50-50 by then. I am considering placing a sign on the desk near the card reader with something along the lines of, "we accept major debit and credit cards, including American Express, but cash is preferred! Here's how much we paid our card payment provider last year ... x"
