OPINION: How important is contactless spending in your store?

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Small businesses are missing out on the £8.8bn contactless spending boom, with research showing half of them lose out by not accepting card payments.

Barclaycard research found that a third of shoppers said that they would walk away from a purchase if card payments were not accepted.

According to the UK Cards Association, contactless spending increased by 173% in the year to the end of July and there was a record high in contactless use during the first six months of 2016.

Retail Express spoke to three retailers about how important contactless spending is to their stores.

Card payments have definitely overtaken cash in our store, so we’ve been accepting contactless cards for a long time. As a retailer you’ve got to accept new technology – times change and you’ve got to go with it. We currently don’t accept mobile payments like Android Pay, but I think that will probably be the next big thing.

Michelle Gravelle, Gravelles Budgens, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire

We encourage our shoppers to pay using contactless technology. We had our terminals upgraded as soon as the technology became available, and since then queue times have been reduced. There are definitely a lot of people using it; I use it myself. We let people know through Facebook when the terminals were installed. I think mobile technology like Apple Pay will be the next step.

Sunita Kanji, Family Shopper, Little Hulton, Manchester

We accept contactless card payments, and a lot of people choose to pay this way now, so my advice to other retailers would be to make the option available. It’s a lot easier for people to use their debit or credit card quickly, but I wonder if it is as safe as putting a card through the machine and asking the customer to verify that it belongs to them.

Mohammmed Aslam, Day Today Elite, Wallyford, East Lothian