In this blog:
- The benefits of going cashless
- How to facilitate unbanked/underbanked and cash customers
- How Reverse ATMs fit into the equation
The payment landscape is changing and with it we’re also forced to adapt. The world is going cashless, but are we ready to say goodbye to physical currency? The fact is that, many simply don’t have access to financial services like bank accounts and debit cards because there exists a disparity in data sources and accessibility.
Indisputable Benefits to Go Cashless
Billions are unbanked to this day which means that if the world were to go cashless overnight, a good chunk of the world population would be alienated from making purchases at POS terminals. However, there are undeniable advantages to going cashless and the pros certainly outweigh the cons.
Mitigate Bacteria Transmission
Perhaps the most significant benefit of going cashless in this day and age is the element of improved hygiene. Using credit cards or mobile wallets is significantly more sanitary as opposed to cash that has been handled by hundreds of different people.
Did you know? 1 and 5 dollar bills exchange hands about 110 times on average in their lifetime.
For this reason alone, many venues with heavy foot traffic are mandating cashless transactions as a precaution throughout the facility to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus. Even apart from Covid, studies have found that 90% of bills carry harmful bacteria.
Reduced Risk of Theft
Another useful byproduct of going cashless is increased security; this applies to both customers and sellers. When you perform cashless transactions the buyer uses a card or digital wallet to pay and the seller receives the money straight into their bank account. When businesses do majority of their dealings in cash, they are more susceptible to theft and the same goes for individuals, when you carry cash you have more to lose when confronted by a burglar.
However, when a business goes cashless, all their sales income goes straight to their bank accounts leaving nothing for potential bad actors. This also leaves little room for malicious employees who pocket change from the register.
Increased Revenues
Cashless payment mediums also help increase the average value and size of each order. Our research has found that self service payment mediums can increase average order value by up to 40% because customers don’t hesitate to get additional goods and services when they make payments with card or digital wallets as they don’t have to worry about whether they’re carrying enough change or not.
This, in turn, translates to an increase in revenue as a causality of implementing cashless and self service payment methods.
Streamline Operations
Going cashless generally improves efficiency overall; wait times and queues are reduced as paying digitally is almost instant without the need of looking for the right denominations of currency and waiting for the cashier to calculate and gather your change. Costs are reduced too as more customers are serviced in the same timeframe.
Why Isn’t Cashless the New Normal?
Going cashless seems like a no brainer for most businesses at this point, however by going completely cashless, organizations run the risk of alienating a large portion of their customer base that still relies on cash or is unbanked.
Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, this pandemic really sped up the need for and development of cashless technology and today we have the necessary tools and knowledge to completely go cashless and help cash customers transition as well.
Introducing The Reverse ATM
You’ve heard of ATMs, now get ready for Reverse ATMs. As the name suggests they reciprocate what a traditional ATM does; you insert cash and it dispenses a card. These machines are quite simple and serve one simple purpose, to facilitate venues in their quest to go cashless.
How it Works
Azimut has been at the forefront of the cashless movement and their Reverse ATM solution is extremely intuitive and easy to use for any and everyone. Azimut’s Reverse ATMs use a simple three step process to get you from cash to card within as little as 60 seconds:
- Insert your desired amount of cash
- Receive your prepaid active cash card
- Start spending!
Use Cases & Applications
The kiosks have large touch screens that make it easy to navigate the simple and straightforward UI. These machines are free standing kiosks that can be placed at any public venue where cash isn’t being accepted for payments. The applications and use cases are endless, we expect Reverse ATMs to soon become popular installations in most public locations such as:
- Sports Stadiums
- Hotels
- Amusement Parks
- Shopping Malls/Centers
- Food Courts
Hassle Free and Inclusive
The best part about it all, is that there’s no need to open any kind of account or go through a thorough onboarding process before you get your card. There are some people who don’t trust banks or don’t have the means or access to banks and financial services, and for these individuals prepaid services are an easy choice to make.
Reverse ATMs bridge the gap between cash customers and cashless payments, but beyond that they also show promise of a future where everyone has equal access to financial products and financial inclusion is at an all time high.
Some Considerations
Even though we now possess the tools to help us go completely cashless, it won’t be something that happens overnight. It will require some hand holding and incentivizing to push venues and customers both to widely accept cashless payments.
A Gradual Approach
For one, venues can’t go entirely cashless over the course of a few days, they will still have to accommodate cash customers at some sales terminals. Based on the market and the percentage of cash customers, a more gradual approach to phasing out cash might be the way to go. Certain economies like Sweden, considered a leader in technological advancement, have already gone almost entirely cashless.
More Kiosks
Another way to accommodate cash customers is to place multiple Reverse ATMs across venues so that these cash customers don’t have to all look for and queue up at one place to convert their cash into a card.
Cashless Checkout Lines
Venues and businesses can take extra measures to promote cashless payments by establishing cashless only checkout lines. When other customers notice how quickly these lines move compared to cash lines, they will automatically consider switching to cashless.
Azimut
Is your venue ready to go cashless? Reach out to us at Azimut, an industry leading self service solutions provider with presence all over the globe. Azimut provides a complete end-to-end Reverse ATM solution, tried and tested at various venues. Contact us today to configure a custom solution for your own venue.
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