What’s Next for Restaurant Payments?
Four trends to watch
Peer-to-peer (P2P) payment solutions, like Cash App, are already a staple for diners looking to split the bill. LendingTree reports that 93% of Americans have used peer-to-peer services. With such popularity, P2P apps are quickly becoming a way to pay restaurants directly. 20
P2P payment solutions are fast and convenient, allowing customers to pay using their mobile device — often via an app they’re already familiar with. And because P2P solutions come with their own layers of security, businesses can receive payments while keeping customers’ information safe.
Cryptocurrency has gone mainstream. An estimated four in 10 American adults now own some form of crypto. 21 Restaurants can set themselves apart by allowing customers to pay with them.
Crypto payments include increased security and reduced fraud since they don’t have to be verified by a third party, which significantly reduces the risk of identity theft. Also, crypto payments are irreversible, which means a refund would require a separate payment back to the customer’s crypto wallet. 22 However, crypto values can be subject to volatility, making them highly unpredictable when compared to the U.S. dollar. Those price changes can make proper accounting for cryptocurrency purchases complicated when it’s time to do your business’s taxes.
One Square seller, Peony Lane Wine, is leading the way in crypto payments by using Bitcoin in the food and beverage space.
It’s more millennials through boomers. There’s a lot of 60-plus-year-olds that are really psyched to buy my wine with Bitcoin.”
Owner Ben Justman sees it as an opportunity to deepen his relationships with customers and help grow his business. Justman accepts Bitcoin as payment for his wines in person and online. “It’s cool to go sell wine and then come home with a little bit of Bitcoin,” he said.
Justman also converts 1% of the winery’s annual sales into Bitcoin, which is then stored in his Cash App Bitcoin Balance. 23
Biometric payments use biometric authentication before processing a payment. That can include 3D facial recognition, vein recognition, behavioral biometrics (like voice and typing patterns), and inputs such as a fingerprint.
Smart devices have made biometric authentication more common and easier to use. For instance, to pay with your iPhone, you might be prompted to use FaceID before authorizing the transaction. This type of verification makes payments more secure and can help decrease chargebacks and fraudulent purchases that can often impact a business’s revenue. In restaurants, biometric payments offer the ultimate contactless convenience, allowing diners to pay for their meal with a near-instant scan of their retina or fingertip.
consider biometric payments the most secure authentication method, and two-thirds of customers already use – or are interested in using – biometric payments. 24
Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are official forms of digital currency issued directly by a country’s central bank rather than through a financial institution. CBDCs occupy a middle ground between crypto and physical currencies. Like crypto, CBDCs only exist digitally. It’s a form of fiat currency, and its value is tied to the value of the issuing country’s legal tender.
The United States has taken a cautious approach to considering CBDCs, though it’s exploring the potential. 25 However, 69 countries around the world have CBDC programs in launch, development, or pilot phases, with another 44 nations researching CBDC options. 26
While it’s still early for CBDCs, once deployed, they have the potential to enable fast and convenient payments across a number of industries. Depending on the lengths governments go to promote their CBDCs, these digital currencies could shift the way significant populations pay for their purchases in the future.
