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was challenging, especially for IHG. The company's hotel
The very point of salery point of sale portfolio caters to different demographics and preferences,
The ve
she stated.

"Brands that appeal to millennials may offer mostly digital
and contactless check-ins; on the luxury end of the scale,
What's next for next- part of what guests are paying for is to walk in and have
someone personally greet them, take their bags from them
and hand them a drink," May said. "When plexiglass barri-
level commerce? ers come down, how will contactless technologies become
a true convenience for guests who want them but not some-

By Dale S. Laszig thing that must be used in the full guest experience?"
Partnership
DSL Direct LLC.
Bhavin Asher, founder at GRUBBRR, described next-level
he payments industry went full-throttle when commerce as collaborative and interoperable. In addition to
COVID-19 pushed individuals and businesses to connecting the front and back of the house, next-generation
digital channels. I've been covering this story for commerce solutions facilitate marketing and predictive an-
T a year through myriad twists and turns. Along alytics, he noted.
the way, I've met trailblazers who had to move fast and
occasionally break things in their haste to move forward. "We've worked with FreedomPay to put in kiosks and on-
Their innovations sparked a payments revolution, taking line ordering in what we call an omnichannel approach,"
commerce to new levels. he said. "Last winter when Orlando had a storm, a custom-
er was without internet for three days but kept transacting
FreedomPay launched a roundtable series in October 2020 nonstop at the store because of the offline capabilities that
to explore what the company dubbed "next-level com- are built in through our partnership."
merce" and its role in economic recovery. As moderator,
I've interviewed leaders about their early deployments and Tapping technology's potential
post-COVID outlook. Following are highlights from our
March 2021 discussion. Rich Stuppy, chief customer experience officer at Kount, an
Equifax company, mentioned the pandemic caused mer-
Next-level is here chants to think differently about customers. "Many mer-
chants thought of payments as the center of the customer
John Mansfield, senior vice president, global business de- journey and in some ways, it still is, because that's where
velopment at FreedomPay, has seen the pandemic's impact the GDP happens," he said. "But there are hundreds and
on consumer behavior and fraud. "As a global, processor- even thousands of touchpoints in the new customer jour-
neutral platform, we've seen acceleration of omnichannel ney, and each one of those touchpoints is a place where
payment requirements as consumers shift to digital chan- fraudsters can attack your brand and steal value. The key is
nels," he said. "We've been helping our partners adapt tech- understanding who the customer is and collecting appro-
nology and drive data insight." Mansfield additionally priate signals across each step of that customer journey."
noted that next-level commerce provides consumers with
more options for payments and merchants with opportuni- Alisa Ellis, vice president, innovation and emerging prod-
ties to enhance, not replace, existing systems. ucts at Discover Global Network, has seen large and small
Re-entry merchants leverage digital technologies. "Global ecom-
merce in the U.S. exceeded 4 trillion in 2020, which is more
Dan Rodgers, chief executive officer at QikServe, stated than 20 percent year-over-year growth," she said. "As I look
that familiar landmarks will be the same but different in ahead, I think the opportunity is to make commerce, better,
the "new normal." QikServe shared examples in the Janu- more elegant, more informed."
ary 2021 report Reflection, Learning, Change: The year ahead
for food and hospitality operators. Ellis observed that increased wearable and mobile wallet
usage demonstrates contactless has moved from novelty
"As the hospitality industry accelerated toward digital, we to ubiquity. She added that eliminating unnecessary steps,
went really fast to plug in digital gaps and join together a such as signing or touching screens, will help us deliver on
lot of disparate systems," Rodgers said, adding that vertical the promise of true digital, touchless technology.
integrations will be a massive opportunity and key focus
for hospitality in 2021 and beyond. Dale S. Laszig, senior staff writer at The Green Sheet and managing
Customer experience director at DSL Direct LLC, is a payments industry journalist and content
strategist. She can be reached at dale@dsldirectllc.com and on Twitter at
Marilyn May, head of product management, payments and @DSLdirect.
POS at IHG Hotel Group, agreed hospitality's race to digital

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