It's a germy old world

If it is not enough to have a pandemic lurking over your shoulder, being forced to ultimately interact with other potentially less than sanitary humans just to care for yourself or your family is the proverbial icing on the cake. But people do have to eat. Dentist and doctor visits are considered essential. General care of family, whether checking in on the elderly or vulnerable, or simply shopping for groceries falls under this domain. The reality is, at some point, you must sally forth from your Covid-19-resilient castle and face the viral enemy on the battlefield. But, how do we avoid exposure to Covid-19 in this germ-filled world?

Covid-19 has presented governments, businesses, and particularly retailers a significant challenge in meeting market demands. Retailers feel a heightened responsibility to keep their shoppers safe during their shopping journey.

Today, you can do nearly everything on your mobile device. Why not use that phenomenal power for good? Besides, convenience isn’t all about how long something takes to accomplish. In today’s world, convenience can also mean safety.

The fact is, consumers must still sometimes brave the gross germy world for their retail needs. Introducing a frictionless checkout experience is a weapon in the battle against Covid-19 and a step along the path toward building consumer trust.

Problems with technology
Contactless and mobile payments aren’t new to today’s shopping journeys. There are several prominent tech giants from whom you would expect nothing less. If you are familiar with Amazon’s 1-click buying, then you are probably aware of Apple Pay and Google Pay. Yet, these technologies have run into obstacles to adoption for both retailers and consumers including:

• Availability to every consumer
• Thresholds and limitations of basket value
• Surcharges for the retailers
• Ease of integration

Piling onto these hurdles, our Covid-19 problem has exacerbated the need for the removal of as many physical touch points in the shopping journey as possible. Flexibility of payment, regardless of the channel, is paramount as a step toward removing these touchpoints and achieving a frictionless checkout experience.

Introducing FlooidPay
Social distancing is driving customers to look for zero-touch checkouts in-store. Simultaneously, limitations of existing contactless systems are driving innovation, as contactless is new in some countries like the United States and not available everywhere. But more importantly, contactless often still makes contact, however brief, as many consumers will physically touch the contactless PED with their hands. Like we said at the beginning, from a hygiene and safety perspective this is now completely unacceptable, if not an outright vile thought to many consumers. FlooidPay offers a simple way to help provide wary shoppers with peace of mind while providing a safe and fast check-out experience that limits the spread of Covid-19.

So, how does FlooidPay help avoid a germy encounter at the checkout? It’s a little bit of technology that provides a lot of social distancing. Here’s how it works:

1. The shopper is in the queue waiting to step up to the checkout
2. As the shopper steps up to the till, the operator steps back, and the shopper steps forward to present their basket or the contents of their cart.
3. The shopper steps back, and then the operator steps forward, scans and totals the basket
4. At a distance, the shopper scans QR code to pay with Google Pay or Apple Pay via the FlooidPay app
5. Operator steps back and the shopper steps forward to pack shopping bags

It’s fair to note that in lieu of true six feet of social distancing, some checkouts have plastic barriers between the operator and the shopper, and therefore, this stepping up and stepping back process is less necessary.

The same thing can be done at the self-checkout. Self-checkout already benefits the shopper with Covid-19 protection, by offering reduced interaction between associates and customers, keeping social distancing at the forefront.

Using FlooidPay in conjunction with self—checkouts can greatly reduce the germ factor tenfold, and focus these areas for scanning and bagging.

This is just the beginning
Flooid has enabled retailers to think about a world where frictionless and an omnichannel engagement is enabled through the platform. As a mere extension of our platform of services, Flooid enabled a simple “distanced” payment opportunity to add value and give retailers a way to quickly reassure their shoppers of a fast, safe and sanitary checkout experience.

With eCommerce growing more rapidly since the declaration of the pandemic than it has in the last ten years[i] in the United States alone, the desire by consumers to avoid the twenty-first century’s plague is evident. Offering a frictionless shopping journey for those that have to brave the brick and mortar stores is just one way Flooid is helping retailers assist their consumers to feel safe while shopping in their stores.

If you are interested in learning more about the innovative FlooidPay approach to contactless checkout or to see a demo, please contact us.

[i] Source: Bank of America; Forrester Analytics; ShawSpring Research; US Department of Commerce; McKinsey Analysis