A ‘Wellness Plan’ For SMB Retailers
By Jeff Wakefield, Verifone
Building and growing a small business is both rewarding and daunting, particularly when pitted against big businesses with larger footprints, bigger budgets and more assets overall. It’s a classic David versus Goliath scenario. With regulatory advancements, technological growth and generational forces constantly changing the landscape, it is a challenge for small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to succeed and better serve their customers through the checkout experience.
However, thanks to recent payment technology breakthroughs, merchants have access to the tools they need to not only survive in today’s business environment, but thrive. For SMBs to succeed in a transforming and competitive marketplace, Verifone has developed a “Wellness Plan.” Here’s how it works.
Acceptance
SMBs need to be empowered to accept emerging payment apps and methods since a growing number of consumers demand the option to use these features in-store. The awareness and ability to accept all types of payment and the flexibility to embrace change is critical to merchants’ well-being.
- Approx. 25% of users paid by Samsung Pay &
Apple Pay app during last transaction[i]
- 64% plan to use mobile wallet in 2020[ii]
- +50% want to use apps for faster in-store
purchases[iii]
- +520 million use Alipay in 30 countries — including the U.S.[iv]
Relationships
Evidence suggests that there is a correlation between healthy relationships and merchant life expectancy. Reciprocating with relevant and easily redeemable offers helps SMBs build and maintain long-lasting relationships with their customers, and fulfill on the mutual need for appreciation and understanding.
Exercise
SMBs should be enabled to engage their customers and conduct transactions throughout the store. This allows them to foster healthy activities in the customer’s journey and reverse any merchant atrophy — and even elevate feelings of happiness.
- mPOS deployments saw 24% avg. sales increase in 2017 vs. non-mPOS stores[vii]
- Underperforming retailers that deployed mPOS saw 100% sales increase for 2017[viii]
- Consumers will not wait more than 10 minutes to pay for items[ix]
- 80% plan to implement mPOS by 2020[x]
Supplements
Strains of viruses, malware and other infections spread by cybercriminals’ unsavory behavior are increasingly resistant to payment system defenses. Total immunity is impossible; however, supplementing PCI compliance with a strong regimen of end-to-end encryption, tokenization and secure/semi-integrated architecture can effectively protect merchants from infection — not to mention embarrassing phone calls to inform customers they may be infected.
- Card losses have increased 18% every year since 2013[xi]
- Cybercriminals have shifted from targeting big box retailers to SMBs[xii]
- 11.8 months — avg. time it takes to recover reputation following a breach[xiii]
- 58% of consumers would avoid recently breached businesses[xiv]
- +50% of U.S. businesses have experienced a cyberattack[xv]
Focus
Payroll, inventory management, reporting and other tasks can induce anxiety and distract SMBs; however, groundbreaking payment technology advancements can support a range of business apps that alleviate such distractions. With the right tools, SMBs can adopt any number of apps, which they can use as coping mechanisms — anytime, anywhere — to reduce distractions and regain focus on what’s most important — growth and relationships.
Choosing The Right ‘Wellness Provider’
All these changes may be impossible for small merchants to make on their own, which is why the merchant service provider is critical to the wellness journey. That’s not to say that any service provider will do. Reliable “wellness coaches,” or merchant service providers, must be able to efficiently manage ongoing complexity and fast-paced change on behalf of merchants, along with trained staff available 24/7 for monitoring, support, and triage — if something goes wrong.
So, how can merchants identify a suitable wellness provider?
One way is to look for the most efficient solutions in their treatment plans. This can happen through “providers” that have been “clinically proven” to solve payment complexity for ISOs, acquirers and other industry stakeholders. Solutions that are future-proof and have strong prescription strength can enable SMBs to compete like a chain.
To conclude, payment solutions today are powerful business
solution tools that can enable SMBs to create innovative and future-ready
shopping experiences, drive better customer experiences, and accelerate
business growth.
Jeff Wakefield is the Vice President Sales Enablement and Business Development responsible for insuring the sales teams are properly trained and prepared to successfully sell Verifone solutions. He has 30 years of retail systems experience and 20 years of payment industry experience as a senior product and marketing executive for retail and payment systems companies. Wakefield has spoken about payments and payment security at numerous industry events.
[i] https://www.pymnts.com/mobile-wallet-adoption-statistics/
[iii] https://paymentweek.com/2017-11-20-mobile-payments-apps-proving-retail-customer-experience-linchpin/
[vi] https://www.wantedness.com/
[vii] https://www.stratixcorp.com/contact-stratix-managed-mobility-services/nrf-2018/
[xi] https://www.accenture.com/t20171012T092409Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-62/Accenture-Driving-the-Future-of-Payments-10-Mega-Trends.pdf%20-%20zoom=50; https://thefinancialbrand.com/68528/top-payment-trends-banking-p2p-digital/
[xii] https://krebsonsecurity.com/category/data-breaches/
[xv] https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2017/09/29/465954.htm