Consumers want payment methods that are fast and convenient supplied

Cash was once king, but it has been dethroned as consumers have come to prefer digital payments. Yet, in an increasingly cashless society, payments aren’t just about merchants in the retail, restaurant and hospitality sectors having the right terminals in place. A robust and integrated point-of-sale (POS) system is key to success.

The advent of debit and credit payment systems, as well as digital POS platforms, has offered fast, easy and frictionless transactions. That convenience can drive sales, says Mo Chaar, chief commercial officer with Givex Information Technology Group Ltd. GIVX-T, a publicly-traded Canadian financial technology (fintech) company.

“It’s about offering consumers the ability to order when they want and pay how they want,” Mr. Chaar says.

The cashless trend will grow in the next decade. A recent PwC report forecasts global cashless payment volumes will reach close to 1.9 trillion transactions annually by 2025, and 3 trillion by 2030 – almost triple the 2020 volume.

At the same time, the value of those transactions could exceed US$48-trillion by the end of the decade, a 2021 Accenture report predicts.

Driving this rapid growth is a proliferation of new technologies. Digital wallets and cloud-based POS and payment systems, backed by data analytics, offer merchants more than just a way to transact.

“These new technologies allow merchants to collect a lot of information about sales and customers,” Mr. Chaar says. “It’s not just about processing orders and transactions more quickly. It’s about giving the merchant a 360-degree view of everything customers are doing within their business.”

That can help merchants to better understand and respond to customer trends, spurring higher sales and earnings.

Givex has offered a comprehensive and flexible POS system for about a decade. In October 2021, the company added GivexPay, powered by Adyen, the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies. It gives merchants a deep look into how customers transact and engage with them, and better serves merchants seeking an all-in-one management solution that includes POS and payments processing.

When merchants look for a POS partner, it’s critical to consider the availability of real-time data and analytics that can deliver insight into customers, Mr. Chaar says.

“These technologies must generate clean, useful data quickly to make better business decisions,” he says.

All the while, network and data security can’t take a backseat. Givex has been steadily growing market share in the POS and payment solutions space partly because of its integrated security, says Graham Campbell, chief operating officer at Givex.

“Because we build our technology from the ground up, we have a great deal of control over security,” he says.

That’s especially attractive for fast-growing retailers and other merchants, allowing them to expand to new locations confidently with “a technology infrastructure that’s enterprise grade,” Mr. Campbell says.

Merchants look for operational efficiencies

Although technology can be a positive disruptor, changing business for the better, the challenge for merchants is ensuring these innovations don’t disrupt their operations.

Consider restaurants’ adoption of aggregator platforms such as Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes and DoorDash. These applications increase restaurants’ reach via delivery and takeout. Yet, these platforms also present challenges because they may not connect smoothly with a restaurant’s POS system.

“Without that integration, restaurants find themselves spending a lot of time building menus for different aggregator platforms,” Mr. Campbell says. “Essentially, every time they launch a new product, they have to incorporate that into each platform.”

So, merchants need POS and payment system technologies that can mesh well with these platforms, he says.

Because Givex’s POS cloud platform integrates easily with aggregator platforms, a merchant could manage them all and even its own proprietary online ordering system through the same technology.

“Our technology offers an integrated system that adds a lot of operational efficiency,” Mr. Campbell says. “That’s really useful for restaurants, for example, where everything needs to be tied together from the kitchen to the payment terminal.”

As consumer transaction patterns shift and merchants are drawn to advanced payment solutions, the behind-the-scenes fintech companies that provide them are becoming attractive investment bets.

Givex’s omnichannel technology platform integrates not only POS systems and flexible payment services seamlessly, but also gift and loyalty programs. The company counts some of the world’s largest retail and hospitality brands among its clients, and its platform is deployed in 115,000 client locations across more than 100 countries.

The payment landscape continues to evolve. Mr. Chaar points to the growing use of QR codes and other technologies that are moving businesses further toward a seamless purchase-and-pay experience.

“So, you can throw in a bunch of stuff in your cart, merchants know exactly what’s in it, and you can walk out the door with the payment made without waiting in line,” Mr. Chaar says. “That’s the future, but really that future is already underway.”

Ultimately, strong payment solutions allow merchants to focus more on what they do best: serving customers well, whether in-person or via e-commerce channels.

“It really boils down to technology constantly reducing friction between purchase and payment,” Mr. Chaar says.

Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Givex. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.