Page 31 - GS210801

Education

that saw a spike in their spring 2020 Looking at consumers' and merchants' responses to restrictions imposed to
volumes above what they sold prior contain the spread of COVID is critical to our success going forward. In my
to the lockdown. next article, I'll look at our situation, as payment professionals, through the
various stages of lockdown and opening up, examining what we learned, what
They did, however, need to change we need to offer now and what we can expect in the new normal.
how these purchases were made.
Instead of entering the nursery, Jeff Fortney is vice president ISO relations for Signature Payments. A long-time payments industry
consumers called ahead to place an
order. The nursery would deliver executive and mentor, Jeff is focused on strengthening and developing partnerships and evaluat-
merchandise to the car. For those ing new business opportunities. He can be reached at 214-458-1379.
who drove in without ordering
beforehand, orders were taken from
the car. Customers would park
while nursery staff pulled the items
desired, and the merchant took
payment using a phone app or other
mobile payment device.
Home improvement stores and
hardware stores found similar
demand. They may not have seen as
big a spike as nurseries, but they did
experience unanticipated business
gains. They also had to operate in
a similar fashion, with curbside or
phone-in orders.

Grocery stores were early adopters
of curbside pickup. Big-box stores
may have driven this process, but all
stores followed suit. All you needed
was to submit your shopping list, set
a time for pickup, drive to the store
at the designated time, and your pur-
chases were loaded into your car.
All types of businesses knew they
had to compete with the fast growth
of home delivery and the growth in
Amazon usage. They also knew their
world would be different when the
lockdown ended, and if they sur-
vived, they had to change to contin-
ue to survive.

Today, as the lockdown continues
to ease where it is safe to do so, we
need to be at the forefront of provid-
ing what is needed to help merchants
address their new normal. We can
implement some changes now; oth-
ers are coming soon. Merchants are
opening under restrictions that vary
from community to community, and
they are opening to a new type of
consumer. They recognize this and
will be accepting more electronic
payments and less cash.

31