Unattended&Contactless Payment

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By Debbie Mitchell, Marketing Director, VeriFone EMEA.

The deployment of unattended card payment solutions is growing rapidly, representing a huge market opportunity for companies operating in a range of retailing settings to offer more convenience to customers and increase the number of transactions per hour in busy environments. In the United States, the usage of unattended payment terminals is growing by 17 - 20% per annum, with this success being replicated across Europe.
 
The scope of applications for unattended technology is also widening. Unattended card payment technology has been successfully adopted in many market sectors, including retail, transport, ticketing, gaming, petrol forecourts, fast food, vending and events. These sectors are by no means exhaustive, and many new market areas and applications are being unlocked for the latest unattended solutions.
 
Unattended payment technology has evolved from information-based kiosks (typically for the administration of loyalty or membership cards) to today’s unattended kiosks enabling card payments for a variety of low and high value goods. Current unattended technology can be broken down into three main groups: value-added information services, multi-media self-serve applications and fast payment contactless transactions.Unattended kiosks have been traditionally used as information points for consumers, but are now increasingly being replaced by the very latest multi-media kiosk technology, which allows customers to interact with the display, find the information they are looking for and pay for goods and services, all at one single point of interaction. Retail kiosks, once perceived as the provenance of low-value transactions alone, are appearing in shopping centres and stores, providing advice and information for consumers, and even vending higher-value products such as iPods or mobile phones from a single location.

This ‘virtual sales assistance’ approach is proving popular with consumers, and current research confirms a higher than average consumer spend in unattended payment transactions. It is also opening the way for greater collaboration, with new co-branding sales partnerships being developed to cross-sell products or services via kiosk retailing.
 
As a low-cost sales channel, key retail players increasingly view the latest high-tech generation of unattended payment kiosks as a key strategic tool. Equipped with high resolution VGA screens and sophisticated real-time network management capabilities, merchandisers have the ability to drive offers, advertising or promotions to a country, region, or specific city location, or to pinpoint delivery of price options to specific customer profiles.
 
As an example, Pay-at-Pump petrol retailers can refresh promotional materials or advertising on a daily basis, while also offering an enhanced consumer experience by offering quicker service and greater convenience. Research has shown that the pay-at-pump experience is a winning formula, elevating sales and developing greater customer loyalty, as customers return time and again for the convenience and speed in which they can re-fuel and get back on the road.
 
Contactless Payment

The growth of the unattended card payment sector is being driven by customers. Consumers are consistently demonstrating a growing preference for making card, rather than cash payments, and they expect speed, convenience and simplicity when paying for goods – and are increasingly impatient with queues and waiting. Time-pressured customers are now viewing unattended contactless payment as a simple, safe, secure and effective solution when purchasing goods or services. Contactless payment uses a Radio Frequency (RF) reader to read a payment card, much like some entry cards admit authorised personnel into a building.
 
This technology is increasing in popularity and has probably been used most widely within the mass transport sector. In the UK, Transport for London operates the Oyster card, which allows millions of commuters to top-up a smartcard so that they can pay as they travel. The scheme has proved very successful and more recently, Transport for London has teamed up with Barclaycard to offer a similar concept in its three-in-one OnePulse card, which unites the Oyster card functions with a standard credit card plus contactless payments.

Until recently, contactless payment systems had been more prevalent in transport environments, being used for mass transit systems in many major cities worldwide, including London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Washington DC and Shanghai. However, the popularity of these systems is demonstrating a greater trust in the technology and consumers are now willing to include more transactions, to a higher value, via a contactless smartcard. The result is the adoption of contactless cards into more retail environments, including fast-food, convenience stores, sandwich and coffee shops, gaming, pubs, taxis, sports arenas and vending machines. In London, contactless technology may even extend to other applications areas, such as controlling access to buildings or events such as exhibitions and concerts.
 
Contactless looks set for massive expansion, with all the major card schemes keen to develop more efficient methods of payment and working closely with technology providers and retailers to find simple, efficient and secure ways to pay. Contactless payments offer card associations and issuers opportunities to increase card transaction volumes and revenue and to penetrate the cash transaction markets with minimal change to the existing payments infrastructure. Card issuers that have already adopted contactless payment include Advanta, American Express, Bank of America, Citibank, Citizens Bank, GE Consumer Finance, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase, KeyBank, Beijer Stores, and Wells Fargo.
 
For retailers, reduced cash handling and lower operating costs make contactless technology a viable economic proposition. Speed, expediency and increased operational efficiency have all helped to put contactless payment high on the agenda for a variety of organisations.
Unattended and kiosk solutions are providing real return-on-investment in a wide variety of settings, introducing card payment acceptance into previously untapped environments. Contactless unattended payment systems are now demonstrating the future for this market, and it is fast approaching the tipping point of adoption within many market sectors. After numerous pilots and deployments in the past five years, continued pressure to improve the customer experience and increase speed and convenience at the point of purchase is prompting more and more companies to adopt this technology and join the unattended payment revolution.