Is your store keeping up with the times — and customer expectations — or is it falling behind? If you’re not exploring contactless point of sale (POS) options, you might not like the answer.
Picture your checkout counters flowing effortlessly through swift and secure transactions. Customers breeze through your lines without pausing to enter a PIN or sign a receipt, purchasing their weekly groceries and going on their way.
That's the power of contactless payments. The benefits are countless, from minimizing queue times to providing a more secure form of payment. Contactless payments are growing in popularity — in fact, more than half of Americans regularly use them. So, how can you offer this benefit in your store?
This post walks through the basics of contactless payments. Then, we’ll cover our top four solutions for POS systems with contactless payment you can adopt today.
What Is a Contactless Point of Sale Solution?
Contactless payments (or tap to pay) refers to payment methods that allow customers to check out without physically inserting or swiping a card. Popular methods of contactless payment include:
- Credit cards with the contactless symbol
- Apple Tap to Pay
- Cash App to Pay
- Tap to Pay on Android
A contactless POS uses one of two technologies to process payments. Near-field communication (NFC) or radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies let customers tap or wave compatible credit cards, smart devices, or wristbands over a terminal to make their payments.
Related Read: The Importance of Mobile Pay and Contactless Payments
As customers tap their card or smartphone on a POS, data is encrypted and sent over an extremely short distance. This makes it almost impossible for fraudsters to intercept or skim a customer’s payment information, making contactless payment one of the most secure (and convenient) payment options.
Top 4 POS Providers with Contactless Pay
With so many general retail and industry-specific POS systems, it can be hard to know what’s right for you. Here are our top four choices for POS systems with contactless pay, and some of their other standout features to help make your decision a little easier.
1. IT Retail
IT Retail delivers an all-in-one point of sale solution for independent grocers, specialty markets, and butchers. Our system streamlines operations, offering enterprise-level functionality with small-business customer support and customization — giving you all the features you need to run your grocery store.
Features:
- Centralized pricing and promotion management
- E-commerce integration
- General and perishable inventory management
- Real-time inventory management
- Real-time reporting on sales data
- Supply chain integration
- Self-checkout integration
- Customizable customer loyalty and discounts
- Security and compliance tools
- Low payment processing fees
Pricing is available on our website using our transparent build and price tool. You can create the perfect point of sale system for your store and see the price you can expect to pay — before you book a call.
2. Square
Square is a popular and easy-to-use point of sale solution for retailers across various industries. While lacking some of the industry-specific features like sell-by-weight and deli scale integration, Square is a great option for businesses looking for a beginner-friendly system.
Features:
- Free plan options for basic functionality
- Robust and user-friendly POS options
- Diverse POS hardware options
- Loyalty program support
- Consistent fees and instant transfers with a Square Checking account
- No chargeback fees
Square offers several pricing plans with their most popular and feature-rich plans for retail starting at $29/month.
3. POS Nation
POS Nation provides a robust grocery POS system with cloud-based access. The software seamlessly integrates with POS hardware like scales, scanners, and label printers.
Features:
- Detailed sales analytics and reporting
- Order management and supplier integrations
- Automated promotions and customer engagement
- Mobile back office management
- Custom loyalty programs
- E-commerce support
POS Nation offers monthly plans starting at $69/month along with customized pricing based on your hardware and software needs.
4. Markt POS
Markt POS is geared towards small grocers, international markets, and organic food markets. Their solution comes loaded with features that help sell produce, meat, and other perishable goods.
Features:
- Built-in memberships and membership pricing
- Custom shelf labels and batch label printing
- Robust scale support
- Employee management
- Ability to function offline
- Advanced inventory management
- Quick service restaurant support
Markt POS offers custom pricing, which you can access on their website.
5. Clover
Clover is a popular option for grocery stores due to their attractive hardware and beginner-friendly systems. While lacking some of the advanced features of an industry-specific POS, Clover is still a great choice for farms starting with direct-to-consumer sales.
Features:
- Customizable interface
- Cloud-based system
- Variety of hardware choices and accessories
- Customized features through their App Market
- Robust contactless payment support
- Marketing support visa Clover mobile app
Clover has several monthly plans with different levels of customization and hardware support. Their standard package is $135/month for 36 months.
Benefits of Adopting a POS With Contactless Pay + Top Features
A POS system does much more than process payments and modernizes the customer experience. A great POS system with contactless pay provides many benefits for independent grocery stores.
Here are some important features to look for in a grocery POS system and how they can help your business.
1. Maintain Trust and Compliance with Robust Security
As more customers shop online or pay using contactless payments, it’s more important than ever to keep your customer data safe. Contactless payments are more secure than standard credit card transactions as long as your solution has the proper encryption and tokenization methods to safeguard your customers’ payment card data.
A contactless POS solution with the right security measures protects against fraud and ensures your store complies with PCI regulations for electronic transactions.
2. Speed Up Checkout With Flexible Payment Options
Contactless pay is popular because it makes the checkout process much faster and more convenient for customers, which leaves a good impression.
Make sure your contactless solution is equipped to handle the most popular form of contactless payments. You’ll want to find a solution that accepts payments from:
- Major card brands like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express
- Popular digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay
Related Read: 4 Top Retail POS Systems for Small Markets
3. Encourage Repeat Business With Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty programs can help you boost your sales and win return business. However, if your loyalty program doesn’t integrate with your payment system, it can be a headache to manage. Look for a POS system that includes customized discounts and customer loyalty.
When your systems are integrated, customers can still earn loyalty points, redeem rewards, and receive tailored offers when paying with mobile wallets or contactless cards.
4. Increase Efficiency Using a Custom Interface
In addition to faster contactless payments, most leading POS solutions allow you to customize the look and feel of the interface. By tailoring the interface to provide easy access to your most-used functions, your cashiers can serve more customers in less time.
With notoriously low profit margins, grocery stores thrive on high sales volume. A streamlined POS system with contactless payments will allow you to serve customers more efficiently without adding more registers and cashiers.
5. Optimize Inventory and Predict Trends with Reports and Data
The right contactless point of sale system can offer valuable data and customer insights you can use to make better decisions for your store.
Transaction data reveals changing purchasing patterns across payment types, store locations, and demographics. You can use this data to identify peak visiting hours to optimize staffing. Basket size metrics can also help you tailor promotions and inventory.
Over time, data analysis enables a better understanding of your shoppers. If you decide to expand, you can use this understanding to inform pricing, layouts, and new locations. A strong contactless point of sale provider will offer reports and analytics that allow you to tap into this data and grow your store.
Maximize the Customer Experience With a Contactless POS System
Adopting a grocery POS with contactless pay is no longer optional in the modern market. It’s essential for any retailer looking to meet customer expectations. Shoppers expect tap to pay options wherever they shop — and if your store doesn’t offer these options, you risk falling behind and losing repeat business.
But offering contactless payments is only one piece of the puzzle regarding running a profitable grocery store or market. A grocery store POS solution should also include features that optimize all aspects of your business, like:
- Robust inventory management
- Customer loyalty programs
- Online shopping integrations
- Reports and demand forecasting
IT Retail offers all these features and more. Our solution is designed for grocery stores and markets, combining contactless transactions with grocery-specific features like deli scale compatibility, customizable hotkeys, and unlimited SKUs. Most importantly, our system provides data-driven insights to guide smarter merchandising, purchasing, and customer engagement.
Schedule a demo of IT Retail today to see how a point of sale solution created with grocers in mind can help you run your store more smoothly and efficiently.
