cash payments
realistically expect to do this and survive
in an era when every sale is important?
Add to this the fact that cash remains
the lowest cost payment mechanism
(according to the British Retail Consortium
2016 Payments Survey ‘cash remains the
most cost-effective payments acceptance
channel for retailers’) and attempts to
force cashless payments fly in the face of
consumer choice and business logic.
The Consortium figures show that the
average cost of a cash transaction is 1.46
pence compared to 5.55 pence for debit
cards and 11 pence for credit cards. If we
look at the average cost as a percentage
of turnover the figures were cash 0.15%,
debit card 0.24% and credit card 0.49%.
This isn’t to say cash payments are
easy. If they’re not done well they can be
time-consuming and stressful for staff
and have an adverse impact on customer
service. Cash handling and transportation
will also involve risks that need to be
addressed by any company wishing to
gain a competitive advantage in the retail
environment.
If we accept that physical retail units
continue to have an important role and
that large numbers of customers still
want to pay using cash, then the next
obvious question is, what’s the most
efficient and cost-effective, secure way of
handling such payments? New automated
solutions enable you to take the pain out
of cash management and to make cash
work harder for you.
When automation wins
Retailers worldwide are leveraging cash
automation to achieve competitive
advantage in the back office and to
improve service at the point of sale
and self-service kiosks. To take just two
examples, Renmans and Eataly have
both deployed recycling technology
to improve cash management. At
leading European fresh meat retail
chain Renmans, the focus has been on
eliminating cash handling at the point
of sale and management believes the
deployed cash recycling technology
has improved hygiene, accelerated
transactions and enabled enhanced
customer service.
Eataly, the US-based Italian
marketplace, has also adopted a
new approach to cash management.
Automating the back office management
of cash drawers, enabled cashiers
to save time by avoiding the manual
counting of cash at the end of each
shift. Avoidance of cash handling and
automated set up of tills means time
saved can be used helping customers,
stacking shelves or creating a better
in-store buying experience. It eliminates
human error, improves security, lowers
operating costs and enables a better
customer experience. n
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