Younger consumers care more than ever about sustainability and the environment, and that shift is changing business strategy — including how businesses take payment.
According to research by McKinsey & Company, products that make a genuine environmental claim have grown by 56% over the past five years.
The World Economic Forum likewise confirms that environmental awareness is on the rise among consumers, which is a signal that your business needs to start adapting to the trend. A good place to begin is with fintech and greener ways of taking payment.
Financial technology in the service of sustainability
What is coming shows that it is time to make payment greener. The first thing to change is the old way of taking payment, built on paper and plastic, which takes a toll on the environment.
In the United States alone, more than 3 million trees and over 9 billion gallons of water go into making receipt paper every year. As well as consuming those resources, it produces more than 4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide and over 302 million pounds of waste. Credit and debit cards, meanwhile, are made of PVC plastic, which does not break down naturally: more than 22.8 billion cards were produced in 2019, and that figure is expected to rise to 30.6 billion by 2025.
Moving from cash and conventional cards to digital payment is therefore a change for the better, and financial technology is increasingly being built with sustainability in mind. Digital payments, digital cards and mobile apps are all better for the environment and for the financial ecosystem, because they do not generate the paper waste that receipts and other documents create — everything a business and its customers need to see is there digitally, in an app or by email.
Best of all, technology has come far enough that shops don't have to build much of anything. The tools exist to move your business straight onto greener payment methods, and in this case a POS system is one more thing working in your favour.
Greener ways to take payment
E-wallet payments
E-wallets began to take off around 2022, and close to 50% of e-commerce payments worldwide now go through them, with the figure forecast to reach 54% by 2026.
Growing e-wallet use only underlines how important it is for businesses to support the payment methods consumers prefer. And with environmental benefits such as less paper and fewer plastic cards, e-wallets are a greener payment option too.
Apple Pay and PayNow are among the better-known e-wallets. Foreign e-wallets are not yet live in Thailand, but they are expected to be supported here in future.
QR payments
QR payments are simple and sustainable at the same time. The technology lets customers pay in seconds, and scanning a QR code has become a popular contactless method because it is easy, convenient and efficient — and it cuts down on paper.
Qashier POS supports Dynamic QR Payment, which makes running your business that bit smoother.
When a customer wants to pay, the system generates a fresh QR code every time, which is safer and avoids any confusion over which transaction is which. The amount due is built into the code, which removes the mistakes that creep in when customers key the figure in themselves.
And if you worry about fraudsters taking advantage of scan-to-pay, Dynamic QR Payment is a payment method that helps protect your business from them as well.
Digital invoicing
Your business can do more for the environment by switching invoices from paper to electronic. It also cuts the paper used on other documents, because when everything is digital, chasing and checking information can be done digitally too. As well as helping the environment, it makes running the business smoother.
Qashier can make invoicing easier with its accurate "invoice management" feature, which cuts out manual steps and paperwork. With it, you can say goodbye to invoices going out wrong.
It is simple to use on a Qashier POS terminal: once you have selected the items, tap the invoice symbol on the payment screen and the invoice is issued. If you can't find the option, or you have a question about how it works, just ask our support team.
Start the cashless future now
Moving your business towards cashless payment brings a lot with it: convenience, faster payment, a more efficient operation and happier customers.
It also makes transactions safer, reducing the scope for fraud and for anyone trying it on. And you can check payment transactions through the POS, because however the customer pays, the payment is recorded in the POS system straight away.
In short,
you can make the way your customers pay greener. It may be a small thing, but it is an important one, and the effect is global. We at Qashier understand how much environmental impact matters, which is why we have designed our system to give businesses greener payment options without any fuss.
Start running your shop better with Qashier today
If you would like Qashier to be your restaurant's right hand, get in touch and we will tell you more. We are ready to support you, whether that means POS terminals for restaurants and shops alike, an effective POS system, or support from our team seven days a week.
For more details, contact our Line Official: @qashier.th or call 02 544 0267