Redefining unattended payment solutions in the UK
01 / 09 / 2018
Vending machines and unattended payments have long been associated with low cost transactions. From sodas and snacks to even buying a postcard from your trip to the seaside, they can be found everywhere. Unattended payments using card payments or payment wallets through self-service machines have seen a significant rise in recent years. Indeed, retail re-engineering to evolve and adapt to the future of the High Street will see supermarkets and major retail chains increasingly adopting a creative approach to self-service. The unattended payments market in the UK is expected to grow 25% YoY from the 25 billion items bought in 2017.
For ease-of-use and speed, customers often prefer to self-serve instead of going to a cashier, especially for straightforward purchases and businesses can benefit from this too. Employees’ time can be focused on higher value purchases or adding to the customer experience. Take the example of the launch of a new smartphone or video game. Aficionados queue up overnight eager to be amongst the first to get their hands on the new release. These high value items could be made available via a secure vending machine, speeding up the purchasing time as there would be no need for sales assistants to go to the secured storage to collect the items. This would in turn ensure that they be on hand to support any higher value sales as transactions would be fully secured through the vending machines.
Worldline has recently worked with Tiffany & Co UK to install a vending machine in their Covent Garden store, where customers can purchase the first edition of Tiffany & Co’s perfume through a vending machine with payments securely taken through Worldline’s VALINA payment terminal. This is the first installation we have seen for a luxury goods retailer, certainly a step change in this market. VALINA is able to support high value unattended payments using a Chip and PIN device and stripe, as well as contactless payments for lower value transactions.
A payments terminal that is weather and vandal proof truly opens up new opportunities for retailers to benefit from unattended payments. Learn more about VALINA.
