Five winning strategies behind Phos by Ingenico
SoftPOS brings payment acceptance to any Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. What makes its adoption successful? We explore with Mike Barnes, Sales Director at Phos, how this exciting innovation has convinced many small- and medium-sized businesses, previously reluctant to change, to accept digital payments for the first time.
Mike Barnes, a seasoned payments professional with over 20 years’ experience in the industry, was inspired by Phos’s SoftPOS technology when he first came across it. He was excited by the disruptive nature of SoftPOS, and Phos in particular: bringing digital payment acceptance “in the most seamless way” to anyone with a smartphone promised to transform payment acceptance for millions of businesses. Today, the SoftPOS user base is projected to grow 475% globally by 2027, in part driven by the continued increase in contactless payments.[1] SoftPOS brings many benefits for small, medium and enterprise businesses, but what makes for a successful adoption process? And what makes Phos unique among the various solutions available on the market? We interviewed Mike to have his vision as an insider.
What makes Phos “different” from other SoftPOS providers?
SoftPOS technology transforms any smartphone or tablet into a payment terminal, eliminating the need for additional hardware. Digital payment acceptance becomes simpler. For many smaller-sized businesses, previously reluctant to adopt payment terminals, Phos means increased efficiency and the ability to capture new transactions with minimum effort.
With Phos, we have been so close to our customers’ challenges that we made the necessary adjustments to make our solution “seamless”. I can say, objectively, that Phos has several strong differentiating points. Let me name a few.
- A shorter time to market
SoftPOS adoption traditionally implies a long education and onboarding process. With Phos, we have successfully managed to simplify the process for new customers.
One of Phos's key differentiators is its orchestration platform, which streamlines the integration process. Today, we have around 30 different acquirers already plugged into our platform, with completed L3 certification. This orchestration layer ensures that partners can get to market quickly, sometimes in as little as four weeks, as much of the groundwork has already been done.
So, when you go to a bank where we’ve already got an acquirer relationship, you may take either a white label version of the solution, which you host in the Google Play Store and give to all of your merchants, or you can take an SDK, build your own tap-to-phone solution with that and give that to your merchants.
- A higher level of customisation
Our flexibility in offering a white-label solution, an SDK, and dynamically branded options also differentiates us from competitors. We give our partners the ability to choose which solution suits their business best.
- A hassle-free experience for merchants
For merchants, setting up SoftPOS is really straight forward. Once a business receives the necessary credentials from its acquirer or provider, they can download the application onto their devices. From there, it’s a matter of registering the device, and then they are ready to accept payments. Maintenance is minimal, with occasional updates as with any standard app.
- Strong support, end-to-end
How we help and support our customers really does set us apart. We have been told by customers that they chose our SoftPOS solution because we were prepared to educate and teach them, and basically hold their hands through the whole process. They didn’t get that from our competitors.
- One of the most sustainable solutions in the market
Another of our biggest differentials today is of course being owned by Ingenico, which provides assurance of our long-term stability and support.
Where has Phos been adopted today?
Actually, our global footprint is one of our assets. Phos has a presence worldwide, spanning North America, South America, Asia Pacific, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. This broad network empowers Phos to leverage insights from diverse markets to enhance its solutions and support its customers. There are many use cases for the Phos SoftPOS solution, from street retailers to on-demand delivery companies, as well as in-aisle and queue-busting solutions being utilised by our enterprise customers.
What feedback are you getting from acquirers who are using Phos?
Phos is committed to continuous improvement and the product is based on feedback from our customers and partners. For example, following feedback we added tips to the solution, as well as surcharges and taxes. If we get a request to add a new feature to the product, we think about it and consider if it would benefit other customers globally. If it does, then we add it to our roadmap and it will join our product set. We’re flexible and we’re future proofing our product by talking to our partners and acting on the information they give us. This level of dedication and assistance creates lasting partnerships with banks, acquirers and financial institutions.
As a conclusion, we understood, at a very early stage, that trust is the key to success.
Explore our SoftPOS solution further
Source:
[1] Juniper Research (2022) ‘Soft POS User Base to Grow 475% Globally by 2027’, available at: https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/soft-pos-users-to-grow-globally-by-2027
