Retail will never be the same, even after the coronavirus pandemic eases. A lot of merchants who resisted the shift to digital or preferred to be cash-only are finding that the only way to survive the crisis is to modernize the way they handle payments.
But it's not as simple as buying a card reader off a shelf or building a website. Any decisions that merchants make is a choice on which digital option they support and which they do not. Are they okay with the cost of accepting mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay? Do they see the cost of EMV and NFC terminals as worth the security benefits they provide? What's the best and most secure way to take payments online?
The answers to these questions can come from anywhere, including the card networks or the technology vendors who provide the solutions, as well as industry groups like the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. But the merchants' point of view is just as crucial.
And if a merchant is willing to adopt all of these changes in the interest of being innovative or future-proof, the story doesn't end there. They are then responsible for promoting change at the point of purchase, or absorbing the loss if shoppers simply don't want to change their habits.
David Heun, Associate Editor of PaymentsSource, talks to John Drechny, the CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group, an organization that represents the merchants' interests in payments industry innovation.