Goodbye chip and pin; hello contactless
Contactless is a popular payment option for businesses and consumers. By getting rid of chip and pin, businesses created frictionless payments for card users.
The convenience of contactless has made it popular with consumers. Almost half of all Dutch consumers (46 percent) say that they find contactless convenient, according to GlobalData. In fact, 61 percent of consumers in the Netherlands either already use contactless. But the Near-field Communication (NFC) technology that is used by contactless payments offers many new options.
Over the next few years, businesses will discover what can truly be accomplished as this technology becomes more common. Now, mobile wallets are becoming more of a mobile organiser, thanks to contactless NFC technology.
“The Starbucks app was one of the most popular apps for years because it allowed you to pay from your phone, making the whole process of buying a coffee pretty painless,” Van Mastrigt says. “Now we’re seeing Apple Pay grow in popularity because of its versatility.”
- Cornel van Mastrigt Strategy and Innovation Advisor at CCV
Major banks adopt Apple Pay and Google Pay. They are making contactless payments via mobile phones more common and accessible to users. It allows customers to pay using their phones or watches as if they were using a contactless card, using fingerprint scanning or face recognition for security.
Because of this, users;
- Gain the added security of having their primary form of payment stored in two places (physical and digital), which is especially useful when traveling.
- Don’t have to hand over their card to pay for something, which potentially lets someone see the card’s digits.
- Can manage the value of the card seamlessly and onthe-go – as we all need to do when we’re on holidays
What does the future hold?
Because contactless uses existing card infrastructure, it’s easy for businesses to accept these types of mobile solutions. Like many other public transport industries in Europe, London public transport famously uses a contactless solution: the Oyster card. Travelers can top-up the card to take various sorts of transportation. With the evolution of contactless technology, the contactless debit and credit cards have also been introduced to tap on an off on buses and trams, using the same reader as the Oyster card.
By removing the need for the public transport card, transport for London not only made paying super convenient for its passengers, it also removed the last remaining barrier for people to avoid using the system. If a customer doesn’t have an public transport card or isn’t sure if there’s enough credit left on it for the fare they can just tap with their credit or debit card.
To embrace this trend, businesses should look at the various ways of integrating different solutions so the customer gets to choose the preferable solution.
Hint: the contactless card reader doesn’t always need to be near the till.
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