Is Britain Saying Goodbye To Cash Once And For All?

It might sound like an idea from science fiction, but it’s actually a fact that cash transactions might not be with us forever. Magento business owners who want to stay abreast of the latest research might want to sit up and take note.

The use of plastic for expenditure has been increasing rapidly ever since it was introduced, but ongoing developments in ecommerce make this form of transaction much quicker, more convenient and more commonplace than any of us might have predicted a decade or so ago. Think about the new technologies that allow us to pay without using notes and coins. There’s the debit card, credit facilities, even smartphone apps that allow us to brush past a checkout and pay for goods and services, hardly lifting a finger. And it wasn’t that all that long ago that a generation of shoppers was having to get its head around the heady world of ATM machines!

Digital payments are an integral part of everyday life for most of us. Subscriptions, bills, shopping… we can hardly step in any direction without needing to pay for goods and services consumed so it makes sense to gear our ecommerce checkouts for seamless digital transactions, embracing new technologies as they develop. Where an online business, Magento ecommerce website or otherwise, also has physical stores, a joined up approach needs to be ready to encourage customers to purchase in the same way by offering contactless and electronic options in store too.

Stats say that, especially in London, the expectation of most members of the public is that we’ll be operating entirely without cash within the next 20 years or so. The other side of the argument says that 20 years isn’t long enough for such a big and momentous change to happen right across the board. There are some who still don’t own mobile phones or have an email address. It may be that the current generation won’t be quite ready to lose physical money. And after all, it was a good few years ago that paper documents started to move online, but we’re still not an entirely paperless society. Hard copies still have their uses, especially with the potential for internet crashes and technology issues.

Like all industry predictions in ecommerce, it’s probably worth being aware, but keeping an open mind about. So much can change in 20 years.