The concept of e-money is still young, but it’s reliability and versatility has made it a big hit today. In the past two decades, computers have revolutionized human life, connecting to people offshore has become easier, businesses have grown irrespective of geographic limitations, and payments have become instantaneous. Credit/Debit cards have taken over cash, further eliminating risks and inconvenience.
The fact that the need of carrying cash has been diminished by 90%, payments through credit/debit cards have gotten an unimaginable boost further unlocking new gateways of opportunities for businesses. Small retail businesses today have progressed their way into monumental success, with the ease of PDQ machines–a credit/debit card payment facilitating machine. As per an online survey, around $ 13.2 Billion payments were made with credit/debit card by the end of 2018, i.e. leaving behind cash payments done in approximation of $ 13.1 billion. As cashless payments continues to grow, here are our 4 best reasons (along with PDQ machine description and cost) that explains why PDQ machines are important for your business:
Understanding the PDQ machine first: The PDQ card machine or commonly referred to as card machine stands for Process Data Quickly. The PDQ machine authenticates consumer’s credentials and then upon successful authentication process/validates the transaction. Many PDQ machines (usually a standalone device) comprises of:
- Car Reader
- Keypad and Display
- Receipt Printer
It should be known that higher technological specifications are not an important factor that distinguishes between pricing of PDQ machines. Moving to benefits of using PDQ machine for small to bigger businesses:
Convenience: UK is becoming more and more cashless; as per estimations, around 90% of UK population carries at least one credit card/debit card. To complete the figures, around 10% of population carries only 20 Euros of cash with them. Since convenience is the most advantageous point of electronic payments, shoppers and small business are quickly adopting installation of PDQ machines in their stores/offices as it gives boosts in sales by a considerable percentage.
Increased Security: Small businesses or any business enjoy secure transaction gateways as payment gets transferred directly into their bank accounts. With less cash in the account drawers, there little to no chances of untimely robberies which has been a concern in few parts of UK. Apart from safety from robberies, there are no risks of accounting errors as every transaction is recorded both in PDQ machine and in bank’s wire. Businesses also enjoy freedom from any possibilities of being frauded with fake banknotes and dud cheques, which happens in considerably higher amounts in almost every part of UK.
Probabilities of new businesses becomes more: With payment transactions being taken care of, business owners can think of new/digital ways to expand their business. Ecommerce has created a very strong foothold in this digital era and has been responsible for facilitating many businesses a chance to reach geographies that were unreachable before. With no risk of payments failure, impulse transactions have progressed purchasing susceptibility of customers by 20% which means that many customers often spend more money online. However, it should be known that PDQ transactions can be done remotely as well, i.e. in the absence of card holders as well. With an ease of increased transactions that can happen from any part of the world, additional business opportunities can be explored.
More Sales: There was a time when people who didn’t have cash used to transact their purchases through cards, but this has become a largely accepted exercise by nearly every one today. People have moved to ecommerce, and even if they shop offline, they carry their credit/debit cards with them. This ability of having a large bandwidth to spend, many customers shop more than usual/more than what’s required; for example in the case of Walmart. This sizes up the sales as it becomes more pain-free and thought-free activity for both customers and retailers.
Cost of an average PDQ Machine: PDQ machines can be priced anywhere in between 30 -300 Euros which usually depends on the hardware quality and host company. It should be noted that there are outgoing costs involved in every transaction done through any PDQ machine.
Final Words: Cashless, contactless and swipe payments are the present and future of this digitally evolved generation. They are reliable and saves valuable time of both retailers and consumers further giving an impressive roll in the sales. The sooner they are adopted the easier would be the business and hence, the faster would be the sales.
