Add to favorites Mobile payment present a major opportunity to grow your business, Braintree says.
Cashless payments are becoming a major industry in the UK, as businesses seek to deal with the changing shopping habits of increasingly mobile consumers. But how should you go about adopting mobile payments, and what advantages can it bring to your company? CBR spoke to Klas Back, GM of international & payment strategy at Braintree, which has helped already helped support the likes of Uber and Airbnb, to find out more.
What are some of the main advantages of an SME accepting mobile payments? Why should customers abandon paying with cash?
Given the enormous shift in consumer behaviour that is currently taking place, the question is not so much should customers abandon paying with cash, but rather why is it happening and how are we adapting to this change? The millennial generation, which has grown up with cutting edge technology, is beginning to earn and take control of its own funds, and this generation expects a payments solution that meets its demands.
One of the greatest changes in consumer trends in recent years has been the growth of e-commerce and m-commerce; shopping habits are moving to mobile devices connected to the web, and with that, the demand for cashless payments have increased. Furthermore, as many millennials have a heightened understanding of the ease and security of cashless payments, they often consider this to be an easier and more risk-averse approach than carrying physical money. As such, growing merchants should leverage technology to connect more seamlessly with their customers.
One key advantage for SMEs accepting mobile payments is the sheer audience volume that they can reach in doing so, and the ultimate growth opportunities this represents. It is important that businesses consider this new generation, which has a greater reliance on mobile devices, and tailor their offerings to accommodate these demands. Moreover, mobile payments done right represent an efficient way to create better experiences and new opportunities between the SME’s and their customers. Therefore providing the opportunity to grow the business in new ways while delighting their customers.
What are some of the differences between a large business and an SME in implementing Braintree’s technology?
Essentially, there is very little difference between large businesses and SMEs in terms of implementing Braintree’s technology, as we have developed a solution that all businesses can use, regardless of size.
However, the key difficulty for SMEs is that they often need to be able to grow at a rapid rate to suit demand and at an affordable cost, otherwise they risk losing out on opportunities. It is in this way that Braintree differentiates itself, as it represents a flexible solution that is able to scale to fit these growing, unprecedented demands and includes all the tools and features businesses need – fraud tools, recurring billing, Account Updater, etc.
Braintree provides these tools in an elegant, easy to use format that does not require the expertise around payments to accomplish sophisticated result. Moreover, Braintree has no monthly fees and, once merchants embrace our technology, they only pay for what they use, with minimum transaction processing fees, which many of the SMEs we work with find to be a great advantage at the early stages of developing their businesses.
It is thanks to this offering that we have been able to help rapid-growth SMEs, such as Uber and Airbnb to take their ideas and scale them quickly to meet the rising demand of the consumer.
Have you any particular examples of when your technology really helped a business expand?
Braintree has helped thousands of businesses expand in recent years, and has seen great success with companies that rely heavily on mobile purchases including Uber, Airbnb, Hailo, Hotel Tonight among countless others. We work with tens of thousands of business – from small startups to established businesses – and have helped many of them grow and scale locally, nationally and internationally.
Payment technology has been integral to the success of these enterprises, as their businesses in many cases are centred on consumer apps, and the payment process can make or break an experience. As such, Braintree helped businesses like these by delivering a full-stack payment solution that integrates seamlessly into the payment process, to not only remove the stress of app development, but also simultaneously ease and enhance the customer experience – leading to increased sales and customer loyalty.
