If there is one thing retailers can do to improve the customer experience, it's remove friction. This mission is especially important at the brick-and-mortar point-of-sale (POS) where a sale can be easily won or lost. A shopping journey can be disrupted by a kiosk that doesn't work or a checkout touchpoint that doesn't accept the shopper's current ideal form of payment.
Fortunately, technology has accelerated to remove friction and improve flexibility for shoppers. Retailers have several opportunities, including shortening lines with checkout options, accepting more payment alternatives and connecting omnichannel checkout experiences. Let's dive in.
Enabling Faster Checkout With Innovative Solutions
It's no surprise that one of the biggest pet peeves for shoppers is a lengthy checkout line. In a 2022 survey, 74% of shoppers reported leaving a physical checkout line before it was their turn due to the unpleasant experience and long wait.
To avoid losing sales to drawn-out in-store visits, retailers can implement diverse checkout options. For some stores, advanced self-checkout kiosks or mobile POS touchpoints might be the best choice, while others may extend the innovation into fully scanless options like GK GO. Whichever method the retailer chooses, customers will benefit from shorter wait times and a more flexible checkout experience that complements GK's standard OmniPOS and is intuitive for shoppers.
Accepting Alternative Payments
Shoppers are becoming increasingly interested in alternative payment methods like mobile wallets, cryptocurrencies and buy now, pay later services. In fact, 38 million Americans now regularly use Apple Pay for in-store and online purchases and 45 million Americans have invested in cryptocurrency. In addition, 50% of U.S. consumers have used buy now, pay later options like Klarna. This percentage is likely to increase as recessionary concerns, decrease buying, confidence, and discretionary funds.
Retailers that accept alternative payment methods and help customers check out without ever needing to pull a card from their wallets will see a decrease in point-of-sale friction. Yet, despite the long list of benefits associated with accepting alternative payments, it can be challenging for retailers to integrate these up-and-coming forms of payment. Luckily, GK retail customers can easily integrate today's, and tomorrow's, alternative payments into their point-of-sale solutions with the tools and support needed to simplify the process. In fact, GK recently partnered with Flexa to seamlessly enable digital payments for its customers.
Recognizing Customer Payment Preferences Across Channels
When a shopper visits a brick-and-mortar store, they expect a similar experience as the one they have on the retailer's ecommerce site. This expectation extends to item availability, branding and of course, the checkout. The POS touchpoint in-store should offer e-receipts, payment and loyalty information, just like an ecommerce purchase would, based on a customer's preferences.
GK empowers retailers to streamline online, in-store and mobile payments with TransAction+. This solution is trusted by leading retailers and restaurants for its ability to integrate traditional and new payment types into one easy, secure and highly flexible system with enhanced payment optimization capabilities.
Removing Friction by Future-proofing Customer Choice
Customers always appreciate the freedom and flexibility to control their own shopping experience. When retailers invest in checkout options that allow for alternative payment methods while staying true to their brand, they will form valuable bonds with customers. These initiatives are not always easy to deploy, but with GK, retailers can rest-assured that they have an expert partner on their side every step of the way... now and into the future.
To learn more about how GK can enable frictionless checkout options for retailers of all sizes and digital maturities, contact us today.
