Digital payments have seen an uptick on campuses and beyond as a preferred form of payment. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of Americans say none of their purchases in a typical week are paid for using cash. This statistic is up from 29 percent in 2018 and 24 percent in 2015, reflecting an accelerating preference for contactless transactions.
Digital payments improve experiences for students and businesses on campuses nationwide. Staff and students gain convenience and security from paying with biometric-enabled devices. Businesses gain increased visibility into purchases, reduced administrative responsibilities and potentially increased revenue with flexibility in accepting payments.
However, not every college or university has fully moved to cashless payment systems. Here are four critical steps to help ease the transition:
1. Define and articulate benefits. The first step in implementing a cashless system involves determining how going cashless can solve specific issues on campus. For example, at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, the university implemented digital payments in dining operations. Rather than going through a cashier line, students paid digitally. They could also order in advance. The change eliminated lines at dining operations, saved students time, and helped dining operations keep up with the volume of dining traffic.
George Lyman is the Market Executive of Global Commercial Banking at Bank of America.