What are the best Contactless POS terminals?

You've probably heard of contactless cards and POS terminals on several occasions. You may even have used them in more than one establishment. With the pandemic, contactless POS payments are the most sought after. They work with a communication technology that makes contactless payment possible. All you need to do is bring the card close to the point-of-sale terminal and that’s it! It is done without having to manually insert the card.

But what are the best Contactless POS terminals?

3 Contactless POS terminals you'll find on the market

Nowadays, having a POS is almost a must. Changing habits means that it is increasingly necessary to have one in both offline and online businesses.

We tell you about some of the most widely used POS terminals today. In this post you will find the best Contactless POS to use in your business in 2021:

Virtual POS.

It allows eCommerce to accept payments from consumers through credit or debit cards. Its main features include: operations through platforms such as payment gateways, maximum security and intermediation between eCommerce and customer. This type of POS allows the online customer to shop easily, quickly and securely, accept payments with a large number of cards and receive them instantly. In addition, the risk of non-payment is much lower.

SMS with payment link.

This can be considered another type of Contactless POS. The SMS is used to send it to our phone and finish the purchase. At the end of the purchase, a payment link will be sent to the phone that will direct us to the Virtual POS to make the payment.

Dataphones and other physical point-of-sale devices.

They can also be contactless. You will find them in some commercial establishments and they allow you to pay with credit or debit cards.

The presence of Virtual POS is becoming increasingly common, not only among fintech companies that provide payment methods, but also in traditional banking institutions. This is a symptom of the evolution and digital transformation that banking is undergoing worldwide. To give you an idea, in Spain, for example, we find the PayXpress Virtual POS - our brand of POS at PayXpert- and other payment processors, and those of banks such as BBVA, Bankia, ING Direct, Banco Sabadell and Banco Santander, among others, are beginning to have a presence.

Fintech is taking the younger generations by storm

Contactless POS terminals can be considered part of the financial sector's technological revolution. The 'fintech' concept emerged in the 1990s as part of a project focused on offering financial services through technology, and has already become a revolution.

Thousands of businesses use these technologies to simplify their customers' payment processes and offer a higher quality of service. Payment gateways, contactless POS, and invisible payments are part of this process, and it seems that it is the new generations of millennials and centennials who are responding most to these advances. Not only in Spain, but in other countries of the world, such as the United Kingdom.

According to the newspaper Expansión, "in London, it is becoming rare to see a millennial paying for a flat white, the trendiest coffee in the city, with a card from a traditional bank such as Santander, HSBC or Lloyd’s. And you only have to look around any coffee shop to see that young people are taking out cards from banks unknown (to their parents), such as Revolut, Monzo, Atom or Starling."

They are part of the digital fabric that has developed over the last few years. OakNorth,N26, Monzo or Atom are increasingly well-known digital names. But how do these generations cope in the new environment?

Here are some curious conclusions:

The range of payment options is getting wider and wider. Not only from the point of view of credit and debit cards, but also from the point of view of mobile payments.
Invisible payments are a natural and inherent option for the younger generations.
As a result, more and more retailers are turning to POS and mobile payments, only in this way are they able to ensure the attraction of potential customers and keep pace with society.
"65% of consumers of contactless technology belong to the so-called Generation Z (those born between 1994 and 2010) who consider it essential in a store and, together with millennials, show their satisfaction with contactless payments." (ABC)
In some establishments you may not find a POS, as they prefer to avoid commissions imposed by intermediaries. For this reason, China has already started to allow mobile payments that go far beyond what we often see in other parts of the world. For example, payments using QR codes. It is common to find it in any kind of establishment, even in taxis.

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The evolution of contactless payments in Europe

Contactless payments were consolidated in Spain in 2015, but it was between 2012 and 2013 when the boom in contactless transactions with MasterCard and other cards was expected in Europe. Gradually, countries such as Finland, Ireland or the Netherlands, among others, joined in.

In the Czech Republic there was a massive deployment of contactless thanks to marketing campaigns. Germany would experience strong growth marked by MasterCard's collaboration with Telefónica, Vodafone, Deutschland, Deutsche Telekom and Trevica. It would also join forces with Weve to support expansion in the UK.

In Russia, this growth is largely driven by the use and proliferation of contactless technology in public transport. In 2014, "all ING card users could make contactless payments with their Maestro cards" in the Netherlands.

Overall, much of Europe has seen an extraordinary advance in contactless payments over the last 10 years. This is no coincidence. It's not magic. It's digital transformation.

What kind of POS would you like to use in your business? Do you have doubts about how this technology works? What payment methods do you offer to your customers? Tell us all your doubts, we can solve them together and without obligation.