According to a recent survey POS-based electronic payments have grown in Italy by 57% in the past 12 months. At the same time contactless has risen by 53% and transactions made through smartphone wallets by 37%.
Much of this shift has been driven by retailers and their changing attitudes to tech investment. This was evident at the Salone dei Pagamenti conference and exhibition in Milan at the end of November.
It revealed a growing willingness on the part of Italian merchants, professionals and companies across the retail ecosystem to use digital payments as a more efficient, safer and faster way to pay.
Secondly, on the acceptance side, Italian merchants are demanding more from their solutions vendors. They realise that not all POS are the same and are seeking solutions that integrate more seamlessly into their solutions and systems, and that allow them to connect to their digital channels. They also want greater visibility of the customer and their behaviours, to deliver business advantage beyond acceptant alone.
Finally, they want to invest in POS that are proven to proactively drive sales and contribute to profitability.
All of this was in evidence on our Castles stand
In Milan, we used live demos to show visitors to the exhibition how Android smartPOS can deliver on all these fronts.
It helped that our technology matched the Italian love of style and their passion for ‘la dolce vita’, with great looking, ergonomically formfactors designed to deliver the best experiences whether used in store or on the go.
Our innovations also reflected, some of the key themes outlined in the opening plenary speech by Antonio Patuelli , President of ABI. This included:
Future of global payments The new developments and trends on the market: from the post-COVID “back to normal” to the new geopolitical and regulatory environment. At Castles, we were eager to show Italian retailers how Android mobile devices can help the shift to contactless and digital wallets and aid easier compliance.
Integrated digital stores Another key theme was how checkout software and payments can facilitate store management, personalised customer experience, and full multi-channel capability between the physical store, e-commerce site and apps. On our exhibition stand, we were able to show how new cloud platforms, POS management systems and value-added services can help connect the store’s back and front-end processes to give merchants greater visibility and control with our CTM solution CASHUB.
Future consumers: new generations Increasingly connected generations - Millennials, Centennials, Generation Z & Generation Alpha - have different payment needs and opportunities. We also recognise this at Castles. Our experts were on stand to show Italian merchants how the POS can be used to tailor checkouts and arm sales teams with the tools they need to attract different target audiences - from the tech-cautious that want manned checkouts to the digital-savvy that prefer self-service and unattended kiosks.
The right POS opens the door to new use cases
We are grateful to our Italian partner Farmacash who helped us demonstrate how the Castles UPT1F unattended payment solution is at the heart of its one-stop solution that enables Italian pharmacies to offer multiple services (e.g. bill, ticket, insurance, banking and postal services). Empowering citizens with access to services and giving store owners greater control over new revenue streams.
A big thanks to them, to all our other partners that made the event such a success, and to everyone that visited our stand and met with us during the three-day event.
We always welcome feedback and are here to handle any enquiries about our products and support in Italy or other European markets.