Sustainability and SoftPOS

Sustainable payments

The word "sustainability" is present in a lot of companies’ conversations lately, as businesses try to see how they can become more environmentally friendly and make the world a better place.

What do the main actors demand?

Within the payments industry, modern tech can help the environment, as the market tries to adapt to consumers becoming more aware of sustainable alternatives when considering new products. The most pressure comes from Gen Z, which, even before the pandemic , was set to become the largest generation of consumers. Back in 2018, an independent study cited by Forbes projected that Gen Z's direct and indirect spending power?reached up to USD 143 billion . Now, as the generation matures, more and more payment providers seek to appease this giant consumer base.

Also, millennials and Gen Zs are apparently most concerned about climate change, according to a Deloitte survey , which also stated that 4 in 10 focuses on the environmental aspects of the brands they prefer. The younger generation wants a clear thing: sustainable payments that will allow them to continue shopping without harming the environment.

What’s the answer? Contactless payments

In 2016, Apple and Google made Europe their stage for presenting their contactless mobile payment systems. Both companies marketed their services as better ways to pay as the world moved towards a cashless future. They represent just 2 of many cases where consumers are helped to pay for what they want quicker and easier.

With more than 6 billion plastic cards made each year, many produced from harmful plastics, the payment industry needs to do better. Recent advances in technology helped fight the good fight on the path towards frictionless payments. One such thing is represented by Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology, which you can find more about here .

Introducing the SoftPOS alternative

The way consumers shop, pay, and interact with each other and with merchants is continually changing and evolving. More even, the rate of this change is fast and doesn’t show signs of stopping. Technology and innovation have to keep up with this and the payment industry has to come up with products and services that help with keeping customer experience and satisfaction high while fighting climate change.

One such innovation is represented by SoftPOS . Through this solution, Paymob can help with improving and ensuring contactless payment acceptance for any merchant who has an NFC-enabled device. Contactless payments are becoming a norm due to the pandemic, where social distancing is a safety measure. The SoftPOS solution is also a sustainable alternative to cash, enabling businesses to be better for the environment by going fully digital with their transactions.

The sustainability benefits of using SoftPOS are clear:

• Forget about cards; you won’t produce e-waste since customers use their phone or contactless card to pay and merchants use theirs to accept payments.
• Paper waste is also a thing of the past since there won’t be a paper receipt as a result of a transaction made via SoftPOS.
• Since it can be applied to several industry sectors (delivery, gig economy workers, retailers, to name a few), SoftPOS can be used by a large customer base, advocating the need for contactless payments.