Cashless Payment System: Do You Need It?

 

A question I get on an almost daily basis is,
“Do I need to go with a cashless payment system?”
This is followed up by:
“What kind of card readers or cashless payment system should I go with?”

I have had the experience of installing a couple of different systems and using several others.
I know many of you reading this have experience with one or more cashless systems and you’ve shared your insights with me over the years.
The answer to the first question is YES.
I think before asking yourself the second question above you need to ask a more important
question:
WHEN?
Follow that with:
WHAT TYPE?

For all of the different reasons you’ve heard about and all the different reasons you have experienced we are a society that relies less and less on physical cash.
The quarter will never go away completely, but our industry will rely on it less and less. So the answer to he question of if you should invest in a cashless system is absolutely YES.

The question of WHEN is a different story.

The first thing you need to decide is how long are you going to hold onto your store.
Are you going to work the store for many years yet, or are you going to sell soon?
If your answer is you are going to be done in three years or less, I would suggest you either leave the decision up to the new owners, or install a less expensive system that will pay for itself rather quickly but will not be a major expense or burden to change out for the new owner later on (more details on this option later).
If you are going to be in the business longer than three years, and/or you are having family members take over and you move into a retired or consultant mode then you definitely want to move on something sooner rather than later. This captures those people that are currently not paying with cash, but also keeps up with the changing technology. If you are going to be around long enough to add in hardware and software upgrades because of new technology or currency (i.e. Bitcoin) then make the move sooner than later.

If you are going to sell your store or retire in the next 1-3 years then I would argue that you either don’t add in a system and accept the results that come, or invest in a less costly system that you can give your current customers the cashless option, but don’t need tons of new customers to pay for itself. If you are staying in the business, then definitely start researching the systems out there.

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy