Small Business Saturday Blog

Is Britain Becoming a Cashless Society?

Wednesday, November 22, 2017 at 13:52

As Britain becomes a cashless society,businesses big or small have an opportunity to offer seamless cash freetransactions. Where once the ring of a cash till was a sure sign of success,most modern shops will instead have their steady flow of payments signalled bythe beeping of acard reader.
Cards are the new cash
Cards, especially in their contactless form, arequick to use, easy to pay with and make tracking purchases much easier withonline banking. The simple decision to change from cash to card therefore has aknock-on effect on personal finance admin, time-saving and even moral stanceslike being green, with online banking lessening the need for paper receipts. Inother words, offering card payments to your customers can help them in moreways than one.
Thefiguresspeak for themselves, and should prompt any smart business owner toget their hands on acard payment systemASAP! Three in five Brits favour paying by card to cash, with 58% of themchoosing card before any other form of payment. While this may leave over 40%of consumers happy to pay by cash, small businesses should bear in mind thatthe average amount of cash carried by brits is just £32.54, hardly enoughto fund a single purchase if your shop is acustomer’s third or fourth stop along the high street. 
£647.3 billion worth of sales was made in thefirst quarter of 2017 alone. In fact, 27% of shoppers say they haven’tcompleted a purchase when they discovered a shop did not accept card and 28%said that this would impact negatively on their overall opinion of thebusiness. That’s a lot of potential customers or repeat customers lost when thesolution is as simple as acard reader.And for modern businesses, it’s expected by shoppers that they can pay any waythey want – a staggering 60% of customers would be more likely to visit theirlocal small businesses if they knew they could pay with card.
Not just about customer convenience
Permitting card payments isn’t just about makinglife easier for your customers, you’re sure to benefit as a business owner,too! Say goodbye to counting penny after penny of the day’s takings, nervoustrips to the bank with bags full or cash or having to run through your receiptswith a fine-tooth comb to calculate your sales. With anEPOS system for card payments,customers complete their payments with a single tap or by quickly insertingtheir PIN, and that’s it! All sales are recorded inyour system so you can view,analyse and compare your total sales in a single glance. There’s no risk ofmoney being lost under the cash drawer or rolling under the counter and you caneven send receipts digitally so your customers will have a much more securerecord of their purchase that a paper receipt hastily stuffed in a pocket.
A portable card payment system makes things evenmore convenient for businesses that have no set location or a counter to have atill wired up to. Even if your business inhabits no more thana corner in a local train station, that doesn’t mean youcan’t enjoy the ease and convenience of card payments.
Take card, keep customers
Between the high street and the extensive choiceof online shops, if customers can’t complete their purchase with you, it’s fareasier for them to find what they need elsewhere than source a cashpoint. Andwith the average Brit going weeks between trips to the ATM, it’s a hugeinconvenience that will likely confirm your brand’s status as one they neverintend to visit again.
Keep things simple, easy and sales-effective forboth you and your customers and make sure you're equipped to take card. You’llnever lose a sale, customers won’t lose faith in your brand as a modernbusiness and ease of pay will increase your customer service in a way that maywell see the same customers come through the door again and again!
Find out more at squareup.com/gb 

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