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Insights and Expertise
StreetSmarts SM
Win-win factor:
Why plastic still leads at checkout
By Allen Kopelman by-bank system. Transactions tend to take a long
Nationwide Payment Systems Inc. time, which can slow down checkouts, damage the
customer experience and create pain points for mer-
ust because you can, doesn't mean you should chants.
offer customers a new payment method. I've
seen decades-old solutions that are neither fast Customers will not receive points and rewards that
J nor accurate and are still working out the kinks. they would normally receive from credit cards, and
Whenever we add a new product or service, my partner merchants will pay additional fees for the service.
Dave and I consider how it will benefit our business and
our customers. • Stablecoin: Will consumers get a discount when
buying these coins? Will they pay for them with a
When check imagers first became available, for instance, credit card? Will stablecoins be less expensive to ac-
customers liked them because they could write checks at cept and use than credit cards, despite related costs
stores, and business owners liked them because funds of mining and storing the coins on a ledger?
were guaranteed for a small fee. Twenty years later, we
still use the win-win rule when investing in a new tech- With additional details to be determined, it remains
nology or payment method. to be seen if banks will accept them and if consum-
ers or merchants will be attracted to these alternative
Who wants it? currencies.
If consumers want it and merchants can derive measur- • Cryptocurrencies: The main motivation behind the
able benefits such as saving money or preventing charge- first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was enabling people to
backs, a solution is a win-win. If consumers don't want earn and spend without being taxed by the federal
it, it will probably never be used. This is why we coun- government. Adoption has been slow because most
sel business owners to carefully vet a hot new product or businesses will not want to hold a digital asset that
payment method and to disregard the hype it may be get- fluctuates in value when they have rent to pay.
ting from vendors and influencers.
In addition to their volatility, cryptocurrency pay-
Vet with care ments are complicated and gradual; if a wallet has
insufficient funds, a cashier may receive a partial ap-
Following are some examples: proval and incomplete funding.
• Pay-by-bank: I would caution business owners to
run a simple test before broadly deploying a Pay-
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