In a rush to create a shopping environment that wows customers and entices them to spend, many retailers overlook the payment process’s impact on the overall customer experience. 

“Many businesses spend a lot of time trying to nail their in-store experience and leave the payment touch as an afterthought,” warns Andrew Thornton, retail industry lead at Tyro Payments. Retailers overlook that the payment experience can be their last memory of the store and influence their decision to return or not. 

Thornton was talking with Inside Retail’s Amie Larter for an episode of the podcast Retail Untangled.

He challenges retailers to imagine the customer has a great experience in-store, where staff have extensive product knowledge and are trained to provide a great approach. “Then you send them to a counter, they tap their card, and they walk away – that is their last memory of the purchase.

“Payments are part of the in-store experience, and that process should match what you aim for in the rest of your business.

“Don’t treat payments or any part of your business as an afterthought. Your in-store experience, what everything looks and feels like, and ensuring the fit out is beautiful are all very important, but don’t let it end there.”

He recommends retailers try out their in-store customer experience from the consumer’s perspective. “Walk into your store as if you are a customer. Think about what the experience feels like, how you buy things, and how you interact with staff, and extend that out to the final moment – all the systems that revolve around ensuring all of this happens smoothly. Take that process through to your point of sale system, your inventory management systems, and all of those things that talk to each other to create the overall customer journey and experience.” 

Furthermore, retailers should revisit that experience regularly and align themselves with forward-thinking technology providers to ensure they are evolving with customers’ expectations. 

“That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take up everything everyone has and accept everything possible. But partner yourself up with the right suppliers and providers.”

In tough times, smaller retailers have an opportunity

Thornton sees it as inevitable that the economy will change from time to time, and consumer behaviour will change with it. 

“Right now, there’s a lot of pressure on everyone’s wallets. It would be naive to assume it won’t impact how consumers spend their money.

“We’ve seen a shift towards larger retailers offering lower prices or better promotions. But equally, on the flip side, we’re seeing many consumers move towards the smaller retailers. It’s fair to say that smaller retailers are feeling that economic pressure exactly like the consumers are, and consumers are leaning into some smaller businesses to support them.”

He says there is also a perception that the service and personalisation smaller retailers offer, while slightly more expensive, is worthwhile, or the product may be of better quality, so it lasts longer. 

“I don’t think it’s cut and dry to say costs are getting higher, so everyone’s going to your local big retailer to get the cheapest price. We are seeing a clear split, with some customers going to the big box businesses and some moving to smaller ones.

“This highlights to me that you need to be adaptable if you’re a business and know your place. It comes back to what your value proposition to your customer is. If you are stuck between  thinking, ‘Yes, I’m a small business, but I want to be the cheapest’ or ‘I want to compete with the big box movers’, I think you’re going to have a hard time.”

One way Thornton believes small retailers can differentiate themselves from larger retailers is by offering customers a more personalised touch. 

That might be achieved by broadening the in-store payment options beyond the essentials like credit and debit cards and cash. “If you are in a tourist-centric location, maybe accepting something like Alipay or an alternative payment method is essential because while you may prefer one method, you may have customers who would like to interact with you differently. 

“It’s essential to just stay across those things. The last thing you want to do is turn a customer away because they want to interact with you in a particular way and you can’t support it. 

“I’ve seen it time and time again. The retailer says they can’t accept that, but come back with a different payment method. Guess what? No one comes back. They’ve gone somewhere else: They’ve gone to a competitor. Or they decide that the fringe purchase I was going to make was already borderline in my head. This is a sign that I shouldn’t make that purchase. And that is a sale lost.”

Why offering multiple payment choices is essential for retailers

Thornton says retailers are operating in an era where technology is improving rapidly, and it would be naive to assume that payment systems – and the way people want to pay – are not caught up in that same cycle of improvement

“We used to be pretty comfortable with [accepting] cash or a card. Five or 10 years ago, that would have covered 99.9 per cent of all transactions.” 

Nowadays, the percentage of alternative payment methods, including Buy Now, Pay Later, loyalty points, and even cryptocurrencies, is growing. Thus, he concludes, retailers must ensure they offer the payment options customers expect or prefer.

• Listen to the podcast here and hear Andrew define what marks a good loyalty platform – and a bad one – and why it’s not all bad if you have a queue to purchase in your store…