Visa: Taking contactless payments from ‘so what’ to ‘so natural’ for customers and retailers
Visa was looking to grow the volume of electric money flow across Europe with the introduction of contactless payment. Retailers were sceptical. We helped Visa work with a small number of big players, uncovering what really mattered to them and finding shared value in contactless payment capabilities. It led to enthusiastic roll-out and growth towards critical mass, now reaching a tipping point in many European countries.
From zero in 2008, contactless payments made up 48% of point of sale transactions across Europe in 2018
The Challenge
As part of their mission to grow relationships with the biggest and most influential retailers, and to grow electronic payments spearheaded by contactless, Visa faced hostility around interchange fees. They needed to earn retailers’ trust while figuring out what they really valued that was connected to payments, and then join up Visa capabilities to meet these needs.
The Insight
We introduced Visa to managers at the heart of major European retailers and made sure they listened to understand their world and what really mattered to them, and what they need in areas related to payments but not just payments. We found that:
They cared most about sales, the selling process and their customers eg queueing and friction in general. Visa was not in tune with their issues
Many lacked data and customer insight, and realised electronic payment gave them this in ways that cash could not
The language got in the way – ‘what is contactless? But I do want an Oyster card for our customers’
Retailers vary significantly, and need to see benefits in a tailored way.
The Solution
We helped Visa develop a set of propositions to take to retailers, and a new internal team and reporting structure to do so. The propositions were based around retailer benefits; unlocking sales with lower friction processes, and improving customer relationship management using new data.
We then supported an in-depth exploration of the potential for electronic payments with McDonalds using immersion in each other’s businesses, with consumers and with parallels. It led to McDonalds seeing benefits way beyond the more visible costs.
The Result
As a result of the Visa/McDonald’s joint working, McDonald’s embraced contactless payment, taking the lead as the first retailer to roll it out across Europe bringing critical mass to the programme for customers and in the retail industry.
Visa subsequently developed partnerships with 25 major European retailers.