According to a study done by Masterpass, cash costs South African consumers R23-billion. With this high cost on cash, it would seem that going cashless would be favoured but there are some elements to consider before you go cashless in your business.
First, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of going cashless in your small business. The benefits of having a cashless system are:
Reduced operational costs and time
When you handle cash, you need to educate your staff on how to use a cash register. You then are required to move the cash from your company to the bank and you need to count the money at the beginning and end of each day to keep track of the cash.
Reduced losses
If you have cash on your premise, you need to ensure your security is up to scratch to ensure that people won’t rob you. You also need to ensure that your staff members don’t have sticky fingers and steal the cash from the register through not recording the cash sales which happen throughout the day.
Customer purchases are processed quicker
It is quicker for a customer to scan a QR code or swipe a card than to give them change from a cash purchase. This makes it quicker to process each customer’s purchases.
Now, let’s look at the drawbacks of cash:
Excluding some customers
Depending on who your customer is, you may not be able to serve them if you don’t accept cash. This is especially true for people who don’t have bank accounts or who are not comfortable using digital technologies to pay. Customers may also badmouth your business on social media if you don’t allow them to pay cash for their purchases.
Increasing costs
By using digital payment methods, your costs to process a purchase may increase. It is therefore very important to review the bank charges which occur when you use digital payment methods in your business compared to depositing money into your bank account.
Creating privacy concerns
When you use digital payment methods, though there is less risk of someone robbing you in person you still run the risk of being hacked. Therefore you need to ensure whichever digital payment system you use has good cybersecurity features to protect your bank account details and the details of your customers.
With these advantages and disadvantages in mind, let’s look at how we can create a cashless environment in our business.
Know your customer
It is critical to know how your customer likes to pay for products. If they are uncomfortable paying through digital means, then you either need to educate them on why it is better or you need to offer multiple ways for them to pay for your product.
Choose a digital method
There are a wide variety of ways to pay using digital means. You can visit PayFast to see the variety of payment methods they offer. Furthermore, you could use one of the following methods which are available to customers to pay digitally:
Install the technology
Depending on the method you have chosen you may need to print out a QR code for your customers to use to pay. You will also need to ensure you have a good Wi-Fi connection for your customers to connect to so they could pay you. If you use card payments, you will need to have a card machine or you will need to install an app on a device which connects to a card machine.
By using a digital method of payment, you can ensure that your premise is a more secure environment for your customers and staff and you can ensure that you improve your customer’s shopping experience.
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