A new era for payments in the retail industry - a comment by René Pomassl, CEO at Salamantex

Bitcoin, which has become synonymous with cryptocurrencies more broadly, has seen exponential growth in the past year. Driven by regulatory advancement, high profile investments, and the starting demise of cash, the case for money going digital is stronger than ever. In the wake of this growth, there is enormous potential for businesses to harness software that enables them to accept payments for goods and services in crypto and other digital assets.

SMEs want and have to future-proof their business to avoid being left behind. However, they might struggle with the selection of the best solution. With numerous payment software solutions available on the market, it’s a tough choice for merchants starting to familiarize themselves with the options.

The challenges

Salamantex’s mission is to address the strongly limited functionality and usability of digital assets. In other words, their use as a means of payment, in addition to the conventional use as an investment. Currently, there are fragmented providers of isolated services, but no other comprehensive and user-centred solution that exploits and enables the full potential of digital assets in the payment sector.

There is also the potential barrier of regulation. With regulators exercising increasing scrutiny over cryptocurrency exchanges, software underpinning them must be 100% compliant. Therefore Salamantex’s approach of going the regulatory way first when entering a new geography and market, is a proven best practice.

At the technical level, merchants might lack the ‘know-how’ to accept payments in cryptocurrencies; how to integrate digital assets into their cash register system; or integrate the transactions into their bookkeeping. Integrating payment software to enable digital payments should not be confusing, overwhelming, or time consuming. That’s why integrating into the existing payment infrastructure and payment processes is so valuable.

The recommended selection criteria

When it comes to choosing the right provider, there are some key things for merchants to bear in mind:

User-friendliness

The first selection criteria to follow is user-friendliness, for both the consumer and the retailer’s business process behind. A crypto payment must be as straightforward as a debit or credit card payment.

That’s what Salamantex’s software makes possible. The buyer pays using crypto or other digital assets in three easy and fast steps:

1. The merchant enters the amount in the desired fiat currency (Euro, Dollar or any conventional government-backed currency) and the buyer selects the token wished to be spent instead.

2. The payment terminal automatically retrieves and fixes the exchange rate with the respective cryptocurrency and then generates a QR code, which is displayed.

3. The customer scans the code with his/her smartphone wallet app and the transaction is confirmed by the terminal with a printed payment receipt.

The experience for both consumer and merchant is straightforward and hassle-free.

Integration

While any retailer can opt to integrate it at chosen outlets regardless of the payment devices in use, there is an even easier way.

Thanks to Salamantex’s partnerships with major acquirer banks and POS terminal manufacturers,

the cryptocurrency payment option can be integrated by just adding another payment method to the existing payment processing infrastructure. This means the retailers deal with the payment service providers they already know and minimal to no training is needed for the roll-out. No new hardware purchases are needed.

Flexibility

Another adoption barrier retailers might fear could be the inherent volatility risk of cryptocurrencies: a pain point that Salamantex has already tackled. The Salamantex solution allows for the amount paid to be automatically credited to the merchant in fiat currency as usual through the right technology.

However, should the merchant prefer to receive cryptocurrencies through the transactions, this can easily be setup in the software settings. Both transaction styles are diligently noted in the accounting so that the book keeping is clear and compliant.

Security

A step that brings us to the next potential obstacle: compliance. More and more countries are implementing legislations around cryptocurrency, a change that facilitates the mass adoption of payments with digital assets. Software providers welcome the maturing of the legal framework as it brings clarity and therefore trust to the market. SMEs must seek out payment software providers that prioritize compliance in their approach. A clear indicator are licenses and partnerships with regulatory-compliant institutions such as existing payment providers. Finding the right partner, enables you as merchant to ‘plug and play’ without having to worry about compliancy. We take care of this for you so that you can focus on your core business, knowing that regulatory questions have already been taken care of.

For SMEs, cashing in on the promise of crypto payments no longer need to feel like an insurmountable challenge. With Salamantex’s innovative, user-friendly software, the move to payments 2.0 is well within the grasp of businesses of all sizes. Contact us today for your tailor-made proposal: sales@salamantex.com