The success of any business greatly depends on offering the right product or service at the right place and at the right time, but that is not enough! A customer’s experience throughout their purchasing journey is as important as the right product, location and time, especially when the pandemic has primarily affected the way consumers shop. Say, for instance, payment experiences. 

Ever since contactless payments saw an exponential rise during the pandemic lockdown, the number of merchants capable of accepting digital payments did not increase as expected, with the reach limited to mostly more prominent cities. Today customers expect mobile and contactless payments that cater to their need for convenience and security.

Any minor friction in the payment experience creates annoyance and trust issues for the merchant and the customer and often results in customer attrition. In a recent survey conducted by PWC, one in three consumers indicated they would walk away from a brand they love after even a single bad experience. Hence, introducing an alternate, innovative solution for merchants to bridge the gap became the need of the hour.

Software Point-Of-Sale or SoftPOS technology helps small enterprises, local merchants, and retailers on board the digital payment ecosystem while catering to contactless payment modes, especially in tier 2 and 3 cities and below.

What is SoftPOS?

Software Point of Sale is a software-based solution that transforms a regular smartphone into a contactless payment acceptance terminal. The smartphone is turned into a COTS or Commercial Off-the-Shelf device with an embedded NFC (Near Field Communication) capability. This enables the merchant to download an app, register using the bank and account of preference, and begin accepting payment on their smartphones- all this without the need for any additional hardware. 

Consumers can make contactless payments by cards, mobile wallets, or other popular payment gateways like net banking, UPI, etc.

What’s in store for retail merchants with SoftPOS?

Contactless payments have grown by around 40% during the pandemic. And with 54% of the consumers preferring retailers with a smooth contactless payment experience, merchants cannot afford to be left behind. Moreover, SoftPOS provides a software-based alternative to conventional payment terminals (EDC terminals). As a result, SoftPOS has gained popularity among enterprise retailers and hardware manufacturers, triggering collaborative development to serve the demands of retailers operating at scale. 

From enhanced customer experiences to operational cost savings, SoftPOS serves a wide array of benefits for the retail footprint to expand boundaries. 

Here are 6 distinct benefits of the SoftPOS:

1. 1. Expands flexibility through improved in-store shopping experience by providing frictionless checkouts and eliminating the bottleneck of having a fixed number of checkout areas.

• Increases store footprints during events, festivals or in a pop-up store by leveraging the smooth sidewalk or parking lot sales, commonly seen as Covid safety protocols.

• Single hardware or device is required to install the mobile POS application for contactless payments. Merchants can introduce a BYOD (bring your own device) model or use enterprise mobile devices.

• SoftPOS allows the employees the freedom to carry the device easily. 

• Better scalability, as a simple interface, does not require rigorous staff training.

• Easy integration of value-added services in the software as compared to specific systems tied to hardware. 

Simple to set up and low cost, SoftPOS bridges the past with the future, enabling merchants to be a part of the online payment acceptance. At PayAid, our focus has always been contributing to the digital payment ecosystem in India through unique solutions that are convenient and provide a frictionless checkout experience to the user.