Back to business in the digital age
It’s official: Taking your business online and accepting contactless payments in-store or kerbside/outside, while restrictions persist (and, even, after), is crucial to helping your business in these times. That’s a clear trend from transaction data of Elavon Europe’s small-to-medium sized retail customers across Ireland.
Elavon Europe customers selling food and drink, electrical goods, and furniture saw the largest year on year growth of small-to-medium sized retailers when comparing the number of transactions from 2019 to 2020 – that’s even despite the pandemic and Ireland’s various lockdowns.
|
*Year on year growth 2019-2020 by volume |
Furniture stores & makers |
Electrical goods stores |
Food & beverage outlets |
|
Stores offering contactless payments in-store |
183% |
116% |
89% |
|
Stores offering eCommerce |
134% |
127% |
105% |
|
Overall volume |
20% |
20% |
39% |
*(Statistics based on Elavon Europe’s small-to-medium sized customers in Ireland)
“It’s no coincidence that these were also among the top business types to adopt contactless payments for their face to face customers and to take their businesses on line to support those shopping remotely,” says Vivienne Grace, Head of eCommerce Sales for Elavon Europe.
“What many have found is that it really opened up their customer base. Traditionally, they would have sold locally. Suddenly, with this new online presence, they were able to sell nationwide, and further afield.”
In April 2020, the limit for contactless payments was increased from €30 to €50. That led to a marked increase in the number of contactless transactions in Ireland.
“As limits increased, so too did the number of contactless transactions – effectively doubling”, says Vivienne.
“If we dive deeper into the data, you can see how consumers are driving this change when they’re offered the digital payment methods they clearly want – not least because they’re convenient and safe in these times of social distancing,” adds Vivienne.
“In the food and beverage sector we saw average monthly contactless volumes increase by 98% after the limit change. That increase includes December, and the festive food shopping. But even without it, monthly averages after the limit change rose 93%.
“For stores selling electrical goods that monthly volume of contactless transactions rose by 102% after the limit change, or 124% - if you include December and the gift-buying season.”
Overall volume growth in the table does not match eCommerce and Contactless growth because, within these sectors, there are still business owners yet to fully adopt digital payment methods. Those that are leading the way, however, made such strides they were still able to bring growth as a whole for these sectors well into the black from the potential red.
If your business would benefit from making similar adjustments, we can help. Talk to us if you'd like to find out more.