Bill Pay Option For POS Systems Catching On With Retailers' Cash-Only Customers

By Cheryl Knight, contributing writer

Most people typically pay their bills with a check, debit card, or online. Some, however, prefer the privacy of paying cash. According to a csnews.com article, point of sale (POS) cash payment technology has made it easier and quicker than ever for the roughly 68 million cash-based consumers in America to pay their bills. In addition, convenience and grocery stores are benefitting from the new technology as well, with those paying their bills spending additional cash within the stores themselves.

VARs can find opportunity in this information — offering bill pay with POS systems to convenience and grocery stores.

Enabling POS Bill Pay

Here’s the way it works: a consumer’s monthly utility bill has a bar code with account information. A grocery or convenience store clerk scans the bar code at the POS, and the consumer can then choose to pay with cash. The customer’s information stays private and the ease of scanning quickly takes away little of the time that the clerk needs to devote to other customers.

A driver making consumers want to pay with cash is concern over security. According to Steve Norell, CEO at U.S. Merchant Services, in a Business Solutions magazine article, “Anything you do over Wi-Fi introduces security risks, and thanks to Target, the EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) initiative has become a hot topic among our customer base.” This is the reason that so many consumers only like to use cash in the first place.”

Good For Business

There is also a benefit to the stores offering this convenience: additional foot traffic, which can lead to increased sales and a more complete customer experience. It could also help build customer loyalty. Stores are interacting more with their customers through mobile devices — providing the option to pay bills at the checkout also gives stores a way to interact more and enhance the customer experience for cash-only customers.

In the article, “5 Tips For Choosing A Point Of Sale System,” Abbie Sawyer of Change, an iPad point of sale app, says when helping a client, such as a grocery or convenience store, pick a POS system, VARs and IT solution providers should keep a few factors in mind, including how easy the system is to use, flexibility when it comes to forms of payment, and the level of support such devices receive from the companies who manufacture them. In addition, they should also stress to their clients how they can benefit from a system that accepts bill pay to increase the value of their service to their customers.