Visa
With 52.8% of the market share, Visa dominates the credit card world, far ahead of its next nearest competitor, Mastercard
Visa may not be the only one to benefit from a transition into a digital future. According to a study conducted by Visa, if businesses in 100 major cities replaced cash with digital means only, these cities could reap benefits of $312 billion annually. Faster customer processing and reduced effort to count paper money create these benefits.
Cash-free stores come with other perks. They protect employees and earnings by reducing the likelihood of robbery or lost cash, and allow businesses to avoid the expense of storing money or transferring it in armored cars. Electronic transactions are more hygienic than handling paper bills.
Visa's plan, the so-called "Cashless Challenge," focuses on the food sector, which is heavily cash-based. Going entirely cashless often requires expensive updates to point-of-sale systems, a hindrance to smaller enterprises. To ease the burden, Visa will pick 50 small businesses in the restaurant industry who promise to completely forgo paper money for debit cards, credit cards, and mobile payments with $10,000 grants. If there is money left over, businesses are welcome to use the remains for promotional purposes.
Some vendors are already making the transition. Sweetgreen, the organic salad chain, is gradually phasing out cash at all of its locations except in Massachusetts, where by state law businesses are required to accept cash payments. Sweetgreen found that employees can perform between 5% and 15% more transactions hourly when they stick to electronic payment methods. Going cashless also helped the healthy eatery personalize client experiences, and encouraged customers to make use of their app, which now accounts for approximately a third of their business.
Some consumers might appreciate the ease and convenience of using credit cards. Others may not be so enthralled. Some may be uncomfortable with large companies tracking their transactions. And those with fewer resources may simply not have electronic payment options.
There are other downsides to going cashless, including Visa's transaction fees. According to a survey, the median share of annual revenue spent on swipe fees was 3%, which is a hard swallow for small businesses with narrow profit margins. Some contend that the costs of these fees may be passed on to consumers in the form of raised prices - though Visa argues that increased efficiency and a reduced need to store and transport physical cash actually lowers costs.
