What Are Tap to Pay Payments?

Tap to pay payment solutions replace traditional payment hardware with a seller’s mobile device; rather than tapping their card or digital wallet on a stand-alone payment pad, a customer taps directly on the seller’s mobile phone or tablet. The transaction is processed and confirmed like a normal contactless payment, except everything runs through an app on the seller’s device.

How Tap to Pay Works

Most modern mobile devices come with built-in near-field communication (NFC) capability that enables them to “talk” to other nearby NFC devices. The same technology that lets a customer tap their phone on a contactless terminal to pay also lets the phone become a contactless payment terminal — with the right software. This hidden feature has been around for years, but it was hindered by the lack of mobile point-of-sale (POS) applications and the high security required by the PCI-DSS.

Today, applications like these integrate everything your merchants need to take payments with their phones, bringing basic POS functions, payment gateway infrastructure and PCI-compliant security features together to make nearly any modern mobile device capable of accepting payments.

All the merchant has to do is enter the sale and hold out their phone or tablet. In seconds, they can make multi-item sales, include tip options, cancel transactions, send receipts and do everything else a contactless sale requires.

What Tap to Pay Offers Your Merchants (Especially the Smallest Ones)

In a recent survey, 93% of SMBs said they believed customers were looking for more contactless payment options, but almost a quarter also admitted to not offering them. 95 percent of SMBs also said they’d consider using tap to pay, including 92% of cash-only businesses.

Add it all up, and two things become clear: 

• Tap to pay payments are an ideal way to penetrate a slow-moving portion of the market
• SMB merchants are ready to get onboard

Tap to pay payments provide low costs, flexible payment options and high security: three of the most important factors to small sellers.

Tap to Pay Requires No Additional Hardware

One of the biggest selling points for tap to pay is that it uses something the merchant almost certainly has already — a smartphone or tablet. That means they don’t need to buy any specialized payments hardware or carry around a finicky device.

Minimizing hardware costs is especially important for small and micro-sized merchants, who are not only bootstrapped, but also might not need many of the features a more expensive stand-alone payment system includes. Offering tap to pay solutions significantly increases the value you offer these smaller sellers, pulling them away from their traditional go-tos.

Tap to Pay Offers Increased Convenience and Flexibility

Another huge benefit of tap to pay is its convenience. With this solution, merchants can sell anywhere they have a mobile device and an internet connection. Whether they’re in a storefront, a pop-up shop, a flea market, on the road or anywhere else, they’ll be able to sell and generate revenue. Very few other payment solutions can offer that level of freedom and convenience.

Tap to pay payments also free merchants from having to wrangle hardware or worry about support. Traditional payment terminals constantly malfunction, and even the simplest plug-in readers like the kind offered by Square are easy to break and require regular charging. Tap to pay eliminates all of that.

Tap to Pay Offers Headache-Free Security

Payments security is serious, and getting it wrong can have significant consequences. tap to pay apps use the same encryption as normal contactless transactions and take advantage of the security features built into modern mobile devices to offer full PCI-DSS compliance.

All a merchant has to do is install an app and log in. Then, they’re ready to accept fully secure payments. That makes tap to pay unquestionably the fastest, easiest and most convenient way for a merchant to achieve full PCI-DSS compliance.

Take Advantage of NMI’s New Tap to Pay Solution

NMI has partnered with Mastercard to develop a new tap to pay offering, a joint solution built on Mastercard’s unique tap-on-phone infrastructure. It’s fully secure, PCI compliant and allows merchants to manage their mobile sales (and all their online and real-world sales channels) directly through the mPOS app and gateway portal. All merchants have to do is download the app, log-in with their gateway credentials and start taking payments.

NMI Tap to Pay offers significant advantages in the battle for mind and market share among the SMB category.

No-Hassle Onboarding Makes Tap to Pay Easy To Deploy

With NMI Tap to Pay, your merchants can download the app, enter their NMI gateway credentials and go. There is no additional onboarding required. Any of your merchants who already use the NMI gateway can start taking payments on their mobile phones within minutes. This helps you stand out while adding zero additional friction to your backend processes.

Full-Featured SoftPOS and Tap Payments for the World’s Most Popular Devices

NMI Tap to Pay can run on most Android-powered smartphones or tablets with Mastercard Cloud Commerce. Android devices dominate the global market, with over 70% market share, opening up tap-on-phone payments to an enormous number of potential merchants. Our app helps you stop losing small and micro-sized merchants to competitors by tapping into the market and offering cheaper processing with equal convenience.

A Sticky Solution To Keep Small Merchants Around Longer

A business is like a living thing that grows and changes over time. NMI Tap to Pay serves small merchants better, regardless of how their needs may change or evolve over time. 

For small merchants that stay small, offering them a solid tap to pay solution means you’ll always be able to offer them cost-effective, convenient service. For small merchants looking to grow, getting your foot in the door early with tap to pay means you’ll already have a strong relationship established when they need more extensive traditional payment systems.

If you’re ready to find out more about how NMI Tap to Pay can help you serve small merchants better, reach out to a member of our team today.