You’ve probably noticed that your payment options at cafés, restaurants and grocery stores have multiplied of late. It’s no longer simply “cash or credit” after waiting in a line-up to pick up that coffee, 6-pack of craft beer, deli order or grocery box. Now, you might skip the line entirely by using a mobile pre-pay and pick-up option. You might simply tap your phone to a QR reader in the store. The future will hold more cloud-based options, too, letting customers select meals and grocery items and leave the store without stopping for any kind of transaction – whether it’s a case of champagne or a burger at a fast food chain. In short, digital payment options are taking the food industry by storm. Here are some of the ways fintech is revolutionizing the food industry.
Innovative POS Solutions
Retailers are using a range of cashless and contactless payment platforms to offer more convenience to customers. With mobile wallets, customers no longer need to carry cash or plastic cards or wait in slow-moving lines. The customer simply taps their phone, wristband or key fob on a reader, saving time for everyone at the POS. Proof of payment is sent through text or email and there’s no need for the customer to track and pay bills through different websites. Most payment options can be set up for automatic replenishment, making it easy for customers to manage their dining and grocery spending. Select vendors offer cloud-based payment options that let customers scan their phones upon store entry, proceed to pick up orders or items, and leave without visiting any POS personnel or terminal. Sensors detect the customer’s selections and payment is made automatically through a linked mobile phone.
Online Food Ordering
While online food ordering is recovering well in the postpandemic period, the emergence of hyperlocal delivery – especially of time-sensitive products like groceries and medicines – is a welcome surprise, and is expected to become a significant revenue channel for foodtech startups. Restaurants and hotels, for example, are expanding their footprints through cloud kitchens, and foodkits with fresh ingredients for home preparation are gaining popularity with business people and families working from home. Payment options for hyperlocal food service follows the larger trend, with digital, pre-pay and contactless options for ease and convenience of both delivery services by car, bike, and foot, and customers who aren’t always on hand – whether at home, or in their hotel rooms – to receive the order.
Consumer Tech
Stay-at-home pandemic restrictions accelerated eCommerce. More people than ever bought food and groceries directly from food outlets and restaurants or accessed food delivery services online from consumer digital technologies – laptops, tablets and phones. Consumer technologies devoted entirely to food replenishment in the home might soon be available as well. For instance, smart kitchens and refrigerators with sensors that know when items are depleted and places orders for customers automatically. Mobile apps to enhance the food shopping experience are also on the rise alongside digital payment, and are designed to help customers locate and get information on products in-store.
Ride-Hailing & Shared Mobility
When pandemic lockdowns forced people all over the world to stay home, the overwhelming need for home food delivery helped accelerate the transformation of the food delivery business already underway. Food delivery now follows the model of shared mobility and ride-hailing for food orders, with payment often being made in advance or with food delivery personnel offering digital payment options and tap readers at the door. These options are making food delivery more convenient and the time from order placement to enjoying that hot meal is that much faster.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending Using Blockchain
P2P payment is a breakthrough technology being used behind the scenes in the food industry to make payment faster, secure and hassle free. It’s leveraged throughout the food value chain by food industry stakeholders looking to acquire loans and make payments, including food producers, buyers, food processing companies, and distributors making payments to third-party logistics firms.
Consumers enter into more payment transactions for food than any other consumer good, so it makes sense that digital payment technologies are disrupting the entire food value chain in dramatic and exciting ways. As customers start to encounter and appreciate the ease and convenience of digital, linked and online payment options from more and more food outlets, retailers and restaurants, they will expect to find them across their day-to-day food experiences. The right POS systems and payment options are therefore crucial for food outlets and restaurants today.
To learn more about digital payment options, visit www.ottpay.com.