The Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way people go about doing everyday things, may it be working remotely or eating out or even shop and make payments. People are avoiding physical stores and prefer to shop online, choosing to rather get things delivered to their door-step. Market analysts believe that people are expected to continue with contactless & online shopping even in the post-Covid era.
With people having to maintain social distancing and choosing to go for contactless options for everything, ‘tap-to-pay’ form of payment is becoming popular. This form of payment is showing a steady rise as it is seen as a safer and cleaner option as compared to cash exchange. In Canada, the contactless payment method was supported by credit card companies, when they increased limits for ‘tap-to-pay’ from $100 to $250 in April. This allows larger transactions to be made through a contactless method, with even online bank transactions and mobile wallets showing an increase.
Impact of Covid-19 on Contactless Payment
According to various financial reports, contactless payments have been on the rise in the past few years. A Payments Canada survey suggests that contactless payment volume surged by more than 97% in 2018 compared to that in 2016, reaching nearly $130 billion in value. The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed even more people to choose a contactless payment method.
According to MoneySense.ca, contactless payments are more popular in Canada than ever before. Following the lockdown in March 2020, more than half of purchases were made through contactless payments. Of all the credit and debit transactions in the country during the April-June period of this year, 52.5% was contactless spending.
People in Canada are shifting away from cash transactions to safer contactless payment methods, a survey by MasterCard states. The survey said that 82% of consumers are currently opting for contactless payment. The trend is likely to remain and only grow in the coming years. The survey estimates that in 2021 90% of consumers will opting for contactless payment methods.
Rogers LTE-M Supports Secure Way to Collect Payments
The current trend suggests that contactless payment will be the norm in the coming years. People are seeking safer and hygienic means to conduct transactions and so cashless payments will increase. Considering this trend, Rogers has collaborated with an Ontario-based start-up, tiptap, to offer people a safe and secure way to make and collect payments. With this cooperation, the companies hope to provide a safe and hygienic way for people to donate and for charities and NGOs to collect payments.
With the tiptap device, the person just has to place the card or phone in a range of the scanner and then the transaction information is transferred through a secured connection with Rogers. The tiptap devices use Rogers secured LTE-M technology to transfer payments. The LTE-M technology is a low-bandwidth network mainly used for IoT, and so it is a cost-efficient way to carry out a transaction. It is a way to ensure fast, affordable and secure transactions.
Tiptap said the device is already showing promising results. Some customers are seeing 10 times the return-on-investment and donations have increased at least four times as compared to the traditional cash collections. With Rogers technology backing it, tiptap estimates there will be 50,000 devices in use in Canada by the end of 2020. The number is expected to go up to 150,000 in 2021.
Rogers offers customized internet solutions for all business needs, just like in the case of tiptap, where the company’s talented staff helped the start-up to understand their requirements and get to the right decision. Being Canada’s leading Telecom Company, Rogers has flexible and reliable plans for different business needs.
All Rogers plans and then some are available at Wireless DNA. To know how you can customize an internet plan to meet the requirements of your business, schedule a call now!
