A Resilient Industry

We here at Digital Transactions have for the past few months been considering the impact the novel coronavirus is having on the payments business, along with the adjustments the business is making to contend with business lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and social-distancing recommendations.

Now the country is re-opening in many states and regions, allowing stores and restaurants to do a broader business within certain guidelines and restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the virus. And we think we can say, based on the reporting we’ve done since this fell disease descended on the United States in force in March, that both merchants and payments providers have adjusted adroitly to some pretty hard restrictions.

Of course, it helps that they’re relying on technology that, thankfully, had already been long in development and could be rolled out to meet such a moment as this.

In eateries, tech companies have found ways to let consumers call up digital menus and pay digitally at the table. Outside, they’re fulfilling orders online and delivering them at curbside or to homes. Stores are finding that consumers can adapt pretty quickly to contactless payments, whether via cards or mobile wallets. Merchants that never knew they had NFC capability at the point of sale found out pretty quickly they do, and turned it on.

Online sellers found a ready customer base composed of consumers sheltering at home. Now that these quarantines are lifting, the rise in e-commerce may abate somewhat, but much of it will stick as those consumers enjoy the convenience of home delivery or in-store pickup. At the same time, the old distinction of card-present vs. card-not-present, in eclipse before Covid-19, may fade even faster in its aftermath.

What will that aftermath look like? Our stories in this issue take a look at that question in some detail. Our cover story examines the virus’s impact on six key payments issues, from cash to the IoT, and separates the merely ephemeral changes from the longer-lasting trends.

We also look at other issues of vital importance. Our Acquiring story takes a deeper dive into the consequences of business and service shutdowns in the form of swelling chargebacks. And the Components story reviews trends in point-of-sale technology, many of which have been hastened by the pandemic.

But the big theme all of our reporting for this issue has revealed is the sheer resilience of this industry, the grit and brains needed to counter the grim effects of a disease nobody could have predicted. So we raise a glass to the payments industry, merchants and providers alike. Well done.

—John Stewart, Editor, john@digitaltransactions.net