SoftPOS transforms smartphones and tablets into payment terminals, offering a flexible and affordable payment solution for small businesses and gaining popularity globally.
You’re at your favorite food truck, and the vendor accepts your contactless payment by using their smartphone as a payment terminal. With this software point of sale (SoftPOS), additional hardware is not needed.
The breakthrough technology is altering the worldwide point of sale (POS) market by enabling merchants to get up and running quickly and giving them the freedom to conduct business almost anywhere.
Smartphones and tablets with NFC capabilities can act as contactless payment terminals with the help of SoftPOS, sometimes referred to as Tap on Phone or Tap on Mobile. On their SoftPOS devices, people and businesses can take payments through contactless cards and digital wallets while capturing PIN and extra authentication.
SoftPOS is a cost-effective option for small and medium-sized enterprises, as it eliminates the need for additional equipment and is rapidly gaining traction globally.
Global expansion
Aite-Novarica, a research and advising company, did a global study on SoftPOS, a developing payment system with great hopes.
Due to the pandemic, contactless payments are becoming more and more popular. To avoid physical contact, customers are choosing digital payments. In the meantime, conventional payment methods like cash and checks are steadily going out of style.
The number of smartphones in use worldwide has reached an all-time high of 3.4 billion. Over 20% of the world’s population has access to NFC, and by 2024, 1.6 billion devices will be NFC-capable, according to beaconstac.com.
Every region has reached a critical mass of NFC terminal adoption, thus the infrastructure is ideal for SoftPOS to take off as a global payment option.
According to Aite-Novarica’s analysis, there is tremendous investment being made in this market, with pilots active in 74 countries, 200 acquirers, and roughly a million active phones.
Advantages of softPOS
- Cost-effective – Because SoftPOS does not require additional hardware, such as card readers, it requires a far lower initial investment than standard point-of-sale terminals. Micro-merchants and SMBs that do not have the funds to invest in conventional POS systems find SoftPOS to be particularly appealing.
- Simple and adaptable – SoftPOS is a user-friendly and easy-to-implement solution for businesses, as it involves downloading a mobile app that transforms the device into a point-of-sale machine. To finish the transaction, a cardholder touches their wearable, digital wallet, or contactless card on the merchant’s mobile device. SoftPOS lets businesses take payments in mobile or remote environments where traditional POS terminals may not work, giving a seamless payment option wherever they operate.
- Scalable and safe – To protect sensitive card information, it employs the same secure EMV ® protocols as conventional POS terminals, including end-to-end encryption and tokenization. SoftPOS may be scaled up or down to accommodate the requirements of companies of all kinds, from little shops to massive corporations.
- Contactless – SoftPOS, developed for contactless payments, has gained popularity among customers as a convenient and safer payment method during the pandemic. In reality, according to Discover Global Network, the number of contactless transactions increased by more than 76 percent between 2021 and 2022, while the volume of contactless sales worldwide increased by 109%.
SoftPOS in use
- Paying bills at the table – Customers can pay their bill instantaneously tableside rather than waiting for the bill to arrive and then for the waiter to return with the payment terminal.
- Breaking lines – During busy periods, SoftPOS can offer additional assistance in-store. enabling the business to shorten client wait times in long checkout lines and speed up the checkout process
- Transit – With SoftPOS, buying tickets is safer, simpler, and quicker for both customers and transportation authorities. In order to avoid waiting in large lines at the ticket booth, passengers who are rushing to reach a train might pay the conductor once they have entered the vehicle.
Utilizing Discover® Global Network
In order to increase SoftPOS capacity with merchants, the global payments company Discover Global Network is now striving to support various payment service providers in their collaboration with acquirers, app developers, and other players in the payments ecosystem.
The environment for small, medium-sized, and mobile-type firms has actually transformed as a result. It’s just one of the most recent innovations in payments technology that Discover is eager to launch in partnership with its acquirer, fintech, and developer partners.
