Australian payment providers have issued a call for a zero dollar minimum that would encourage retailers to provide customers with the choice to make cashless transactions with no restrictions.
The campaign is in response to new research commissioned by MasterCard, which found that Australian businesses may lose up to 40 per cent of their business by not offering consumers the choice to make payments of any size with their preferred payment method.
“This means retailers imposing a minimum spend for consumers using a card are potentially losing out on a staggering 40 per cent of customers,” MasterCard Head of Market Development and Innovation Gary Duursma said.
The survey of 1,010 Australian has shown that consumers are increasingly aggravated when they need to pay cash for smaller purchases or where there is a minimum spend requirement. Over half of 18-34 year olds will avoid shops that do not accept card payments for smaller transactions, with 70 per cent finding that a card payment is more convenient than carrying coins.
“Australia leads the world in contactless payments, with now seven out of 10 MasterCard transactions being done in this way,” Mr Duursma said.
“Consumers have now found that a card payment is faster and more convenient than alternative payment methods. With this reality in their minds, consumers don’t understand why a retailer would restrict card payments for low-value transactions. They make their feelings felt with their feet.”