42


Future of Retail — Payments Innovation


issue 02


That’s why Miura Systems recently


commissioned research which draws from the opinions of store staff, shoppers and senior retail executives. It’s no silver bullet, but the findings point to retail mobilisation as offering many of the improvements sought by retailers in the UK today. As we brace for another period of economic and political uncertainty, it’s never been a better time to consider what mPOS could do for your business.


VIEW FROM THE FRONT LINE One of the first things we can say about running a high street business in 2016 is that shoppers are more demanding than they’ve ever been. They have little time for queues, want as much choice as possible to pay by their preferred method, and increasingly demand a more interactive experience with staff. The front line is often at the till. In fact, 80%


of store staff say shoppers put pressure on them to hurry when there is a queue, while in London, over a third say their customers think they work too slowly. Technology in this context provides both problems and solutions for the under-fire retail owners and their staff. Smartphone-carrying shoppers who increasingly research purchases online, are becoming more demanding of staff – 70% of whom say consumers often ask them questions even when they’re serving another customer. Investing in mPOS capabilities would help cut queues at the till and provide an opportunity to create that emotional bond between assistant and customer which is so vital in customer engagement and transforming the shopping experience. More on this later. Whatever happens, shoppers want change.


And over a decade after Chip and PIN first hit the high street, it’s clear that machines are in need of a reboot. Some 41% of shoppers say that Chip and PIN machines are often worn and dirty and 70% of staff claim that if they were CEO, they’d introduce new technologies to stores more quickly. Technologies like contactless, Apple Pay and


Android Pay have the potential to transform the purchasing journey into a faster, more secure and user-friendly experience. Contactless in


particular is fast becoming the norm for card payments on the high street. As of April, there were reportedly 88 million such cards in issue in the UK, with nearly £1.6 billion spent on them in that month alone – an increase of over 240% from a year previous. We expect mobile payment systems from Apple, Android, and in time, Samsung, to follow the same path. In an increasingly fragmented payment landscape it should be a no-brainer for retail owners to offer as much freedom as possible to customers who are taking more time deciding exactly how they’d like pay.


THE BOTTOM LINE The bottom line is that retailers who fail to respond to these multiple challenges will begin to see lost business and revenue declines. According to the staff we spoke to, UK retailers could each be losing on average over £110,000 in each store per year through lost sales. This is either due to the customer walking out because they couldn’t find an item; they couldn’t find a store assistant; or because pricing wasn’t clear. Fortunately, there is an answer to this challenge, and it comes in the form of the Apple Store. Apple offers us a whole new way of doing


things. Staff are empowered to roam the store with mobile devices, from which they can help customers with their queries, take payment via a wirelessly connected machine, and even order items that aren’t in stock. It not only mitigates all the issues that usually cause a customer to leave a store without buying, but creates the kind of interactive shopping experience which increasingly tech-savvy UK consumers are craving. The result? Happier shoppers and bigger profits. For those still not convinced, it would


be foolish to underestimate the impact the American tech giant’s retail model has had on the British consumer. We calculated that around 14% of the public bought something from an Apple Store in the past two years – that’s nearly seven million people. The vast majority we spoke to thought the whole payment process was extremely easy (96%); they liked the fact that staff could take payment


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