30th January, 2018
In the world of payment, the only thing that stays the same is the rate of change – but keeping up is vital if you want to keep your customers happy.
Once upon a time a business which only accepted cash was the norm, but given the plethora of payment methods people are using if you only accept cash you’re limiting your growth.
Instead, you should offer customers smarter, flexible payment and invoicing solutions. At the very least, you should be able to accept customers’ preferred credit cards.
As things stand, the Australian consumer economy is one which runs on plastic.
Consider these statistics put out by finder.com.au:
• 16 million credit cards are circulating in Australia
• Collectively, Australians spend $24 billion on their credit cards every month
• 70 percent of Australians own a credit card
Many consumers feel uneasy about the shift to digital forms of payment – fearing what could happen if every purchase can be tracked.
But the convenience of using credit cards and digital forms of payment are simply outweighing these concerns.
Australians’ love of different payment options has led the University of New South Wales to declare that as early as 2020, just two years away, Australia will become a totally cashless society.
In fact, the Reserve Bank of Australia has found that as many as 20 percent of Australians don’t even carry cash in their wallets.
That’s up from eight percent just three years ago.
The message here is pretty clear: consumers are quite literally voting with their wallets, and the business which offer a range of payment options are in a great position to get maximum benefit from the shift.
With this great shift in consumer spending underway, do you want to be the one business in your street which still has a ‘cash only’ sign taped to the register?
But switching to new payment methods, particularly when they’re digitally connected isn’t without risk – if you get it wrong.
Without protection, you risk third parties gaining access to your and your customers’ payment information.
Luckily, payment technology solutions such as MYOB PayBy offer advanced security features such as data encryption, adherence to the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or two-factor authentication.
It also offers fraud detection tools to help you manage risk and fight current and next-gen fraudsters.
MYOB PayBy can also offer your customers the convenience of paying invoices with the click of a button instead of the constant re-entering of details which can be absolutely maddening.