In today’s digital age, everything is connected in one way or another. Physical currency is less common compared to Apple or Google Pay. It is convenient, and can use a card linked to your online checking account.
However, some companies don’t have the money to buy newer checkout devices, so some users who only carry their phones when they check out at certain stores can’t check out as the company doesn’t have access to the wireless/cashless pay systems.
Louise Larsen, a student at Silver Creek High School, works at a company with an older pay pad. At the establishment, they cannot accept wireless pay on the pay pad so some people are not able to purchase their item(s).
“One of the saddest things is when people come in with only the phone and aren’t able to pay,” states Larsen
Verifone is a company that offers both phones and card check-out devices. The company offers on its new models the seamless ability of cashless payments for users that use phones or cards. Devices like Verifone give users the ease of convenience, being able to pull out their phone or card, touch the device, and pay. This ease of convenience is what makes cash less used. Part of this is due to COVID-19 as some people are afraid of the germs that the scanner may contain. A statistic released by CNBC stated that 51% of purchases are wireless transactions, which has increased since COVID-19.
Most people who spend cash in today’s society are most likely to stuff the cash in their wallet or coins in a jar. In an article released by Clearly Payments, the amount of people who pay with cash is down to 16%. The article includes a graph that shows the prediction for 2029 that the number of people who pay with Physical cash will be down to 5%.
However, the digital payment system has its flaws. Back in 2019, Target had a nationwide system shutdown, which caused their digital payment system to go down. During this time, none of the payment devices would work, not allowing any user with a card or phone to check out at Target. Target was estimated to have lost as much as $50 million to $100 million in products that day.
With people wanting to pay with phones and contact pay, companies should find a solution that will allow them to use devices to check out customers that are affordable to the business.
The other step to make digital transactions easier is to make a more “seamless” way to be able to pay, as most companies nowadays have apps. A good concept of this is the Amazon Fresh store. They don’t have you pay at a counter, they have the items put in the cart, then that cart is linked to your Amazon account. An implementation of this could be scanning a QR code and getting a passcode to verify.
Moving forward to a bigger future, the world has changed. As cash fades, we need to find a way to be able to adapt to the ever-changing world. Whether this be to allow companies to use systems like Amazon Fresh, or allow more seamless banking between affordable devices to communicate with the cash registers