Retailers warned to embrace contactless or risk losing customers

Retailers not offering contactless payment options are in danger of being “left behind” according to payments processor Worldpay, which has seen ‘tap and go’ payments dramatically increase over the past 12 months in the UK.

Worldpay’s data shows that the number of UK contactless transactions processed by them rose by 160 percent in 2015, with monthly payments using the technology peaking at 45 million, and that it has processed over 4 billion pounds in contactless transactions since 2012.

The payments processor claims that consumers having the ability to pay using contactless is becoming a deciding factor on where shoppers spend their money, as they are looking for speed and convenience.

Dave Hobday, UK managing director of Worldpay, said: “The UK has been a trailblazer for contactless adoption, and we’re seeing that play out today as the technology plants itself firmly in the mainstream. Raising the limit on contactless to 30 pounds opened the floodgates by broadening the opportunities for consumers to use the technology, but it’s far from the end of the story.

“Contactless cards may have paved the way for the enormous surge in tap and go payments we’re seeing today, but the next 12 months will be defined by how consumers take to paying for goods on their smartphones – especially with features such as High Value Contactless.”

In 2020 new regulations will come in to force requiring all card terminals in the UK to be contactless enabled, however Hobday warns against retailers delaying integration of the technology: “These numbers show how contactless has moved from novelty to normal in little more than 4 years – retailers still on the sidelines without a strategy to accommodate this technology could be left in the dust and risk of driving loyal customers away.”

According to the UK Cards Association, nearly one in eight payments in the UK is now carried out via contactless payment, and in 2015, there were more than one billion contactless payments made in the UK.