The COVID-19 pandemic transformed customer behaviour in several ways. Although international health authorities have declared the pandemic to be officially over for a while now, making people return to their old, “normal” life, a few habits acquired during the last years remained. Amongst them is, undoubtedly, the acceleration of new payment methods, including at service stations.
The need to change: the digitalisation of payments
The future of cash was in discussion long before COVID-19. With the pandemic, the already ongoing shifts from cash to cashless and cashless to contactless gained a new push. With social distancing and other strict hygienic measures and the need to maintain daily, elemental purchases, businesses faced no choice but to increase the number of payment options offered to customers.
The same logic was applied to service stations. If forecourts had a decline in the number of visitors in the first phase of the pandemic, as the economy started to reopen, they quickly adapted to implement a new set of alternatives when it came to paying.
Fast forward: the decrease in cash at service stations
The urgency of keeping a distance from other people – and avoiding exposure to shared objects and devices, due to hygiene and safety reasons – led many customers to change their payment methods, entering the world of digitalisation. Customers who were used to paying with cash saw that method decrease. More than that, the use of digital payment methods increased at a pace seven times faster than the average trend of pre-COVID years, according to McKinsey.
The spread of e-commerce was an important factor in this shift, but not the only one. Customers who started using cards realised that electronic payments were more convenient than paying with cash. The European Central Bank (ECB) showed that 45% of customers changed their payment behaviour for convenience, while 38% opted for digitalised methods because banknotes could represent a risk of COVID-19 infection.
In addition to that is the fact that more and more businesses began to accept digital payment methods – including forecourts and c-stores, which had to keep up with the transformations. Establishments in general were encouraged by authorities, who recommended cashless payment as much as possible to diminish contact between people.
The shift was so significant that it involved two steps of digitalisation. The first one is the change from cash to card, with the adoption of digital means of payment. The second one is the use of contactless methods – which represents a further step in the technology. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of new technologies in such a way that it represented a leap from cash to contactless.
All in all, the necessary changes were embraced by customers, who saw the advantages of utilising electronic means of payment, a convenient and time-saving option.
What are the benefits of offering electronic means of payment at the forecourt?
From an operational point of view, the customer behaviour change is a beneficial one. Managing cash comes with direct and indirect costs – the cost of transportation, storage, or increased risks due to error, vandalism, or robbery. Cash transactions are also more difficult to track, which opens security breaches and allows fraud to happen more easily.
More than that, digital payments facilitate financial reporting for station owners. It is more convenient, for instance, to track card payments instead of cash payments. Having a payment terminal that accepts different payment methods – from debit, credit, and fleet cards to QR Codes and mobile payment – makes it easy to have an overview of all purchases made at the forecourt, at the same time attending to customer preferences.
Finally, in some countries, it is already mandatory to offer at least one electronic means of payment. It is the case of Belgium, where since the middle of 2022 all consumer-facing companies, regardless of size, must allow customers to pay for their purchases electronically.
Even though cash will not disappear completely, handling less of it eases the burden of forecourt owners in dealing with transport, risks, and mistakes.
To enter the digitalisation or improve current systems, TSG can be your partner. We provide a comprehensive set of solutions for payment, which involves debit, credit, and fleet cards, as well as mobile payment and contactless devices. As the European leader in technical solutions for mobility, TSG can offer a tailored-made project designed to your needs and your customers’ new payment behaviour.
Talk to our experts to learn more: https://tsg.accept.tabs-spaces.dev/systems/
