On the one hand, consumers are looking for convenience, speed and security when paying for a purchase, and on the other, merchants are looking to adapt their means of accepting payments to these needs.
The bridge between these two dimensions is called contactless and is taking over the payments industry all over the world.
According to data revealed by VISA, between August and October 2020, this operator processed 500 million more contactless payments across Europe than in previous years.
As you can read in infographic produced by REDUNIQWith the increase in the penetration of contactless technology recorded by VISA in Europe, 78% of all transactions are already carried out using contactless and the trend will continue if we take into account the 73% of Europeans who say that the end of the pandemic will not change this habit.
European consumers are so satisfied with this means of payment that 64% already mark contactless as their favourite payment method.
The card remains the preferred means of payment, but the use of smartphones (28%) and wearables (4%) with integrated contactless technology is gaining market share.
The reasons behind this preference are diverse, but in general opinions emphasise the greater hygiene, simplicity and security of payments using contactless cards or wearables compared to physical cash.
This ultimately had direct implications for the reduction or elimination of the use of cash in purchases made by European consumers in grocery shops, retail shops and pharmacies.
Contactless payments in Portugal
In Portugal, the trend has also been upwards.
At a time when we are in full deconfinement, the weight of the contactless payments in the turnover of Portuguese businesses (REDUNIQ Insights data) went from 10.55% at the beginning of March 2020 to 42% in March 2021, a percentage that contrasts with the 4% of January 2019 or the 10% of January 2020.
As REDNIQ Insights report, o Contactless continues to increase its penetration in a sustained manner, having surpassed the 40% level in the 1st Quarter of 2021 (in Confinement) (4x more than in the same period of 2020 and around 10x more than in 2019).
This growth trajectory extended to the average amount spent by the consumer on each transaction, which went from €14.69 in March 2020 to over €35 a year later.
The possibility of making digital payments in-store, regardless of the amount, is no longer just a convenience, but a necessity for consumers and merchants, helping them to avoid physical contact with the merchant. payment terminal.
This necessarily leads to the need for the retail system national companies must adopt this technology in their businesses in order to respond to the new demands of their consumers.
This greater comfort in using contactless for payments is clearly expressed in the conclusions of a recent study by the European Commission. 451 Research by S&P Global Market Intelligence. This document revealed that 54% of consumers globally felt "highly comfortable" with contactless payments in general, while almost two thirds (65%) said they expect more merchants to accept contactless payment options in the future, citing the speed and convenience of these means as the two main reasons why this should happen.
Tools for democratising contactless
"Banco de Portugal wants all cards to be issued with contactless", Público, 9 November 2020
As we've seen, contactless transactions are in a growth spiral. More and larger payments with this technology have led to the need to adapt existing technology to consumer preferences.
At the end of last year, the Bank of Portugal (BdP) made public a document known as "National Strategy for Retail Payments | Horizon 2022" which, broadly speaking, aims to extend and generalise the use of electronic means of payment in Portugal by December 2022.
The first measure to encourage and democratise the use of the contactless was immediately put into practice and obliged all card issuers to incorporate this technology into new cards issued.
The regulator predicts that by the end of 2022, the number of contactless cards in Portugal will be close to 100% instead of the current 50%.
At the beginning of 2021, this strategy took on a new chapter, with the focus this time being on promoting integration and activation (in the case of a physical POS that already has the contactless payment option) at payment terminals.
As with cards, the data revealed by the BdP indicates that half of the terminals in Portugal are currently equipped with contactless technology.
However, before the BdP developed this strategy, REDUNIQ anticipated the dematerialisation of payments and sought to develop differentiated solutions that would fit into this new transactional paradigm.
REDUNIQ Smart
A pioneer in the integration of contactless technology in its terminals, REDUNIQ has recently started offering a state-of-the-art POS terminal which, in addition to accepting payments by card or smartphone (with contactless), chip and MB WAY, Apple Pay or Google Pay, gives the merchant the possibility of developing apps to manage their business from the terminal itself.
O REDUNIQ SmartThis Android terminal, as it is called, allows you to check and manage stocks in real time, place orders with your suppliers, manage your fleet via GPS or even access your invoicing via apps that you can integrate into this POS.
If you have more than one shop, you can access the entire group of shops.
The advantages also apply to the customer. They can, for example, browse the catalogue on the terminal, select the product they want, pay by card or smartphone, print or scan a ticket using a QR Code. All this from a single Contactless TPA.
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