Prommt Supporting ‘Click & Collect’ Payments for Retailers During Lockdown

As retailers face into another period of lockdown, many are scrambling to find methods of trading through the restrictions. Prommt provides an easy-to-implement and affordable way to manage payments for ‘click-and-collect’, ‘call-and-collect’, ‘contact-free delivery’ and ‘online consultation’ models.

When the government announced another period of lockdown yesterday, references to ‘click-and-collect’ mightn’t have immediately offered much hope for beleaguered retailers. As ‘non-essential’ shops are forced to shut their doors for another 6 weeks, there’ll be a significant number of retailers who won’t feel confident that they can simply move their business online.

‘Click & Collect’ Doesn’t Necessarily Mean a Full E-Commerce Experience

Already hard-pressed retailers don’t necessarily have the time, expertise or resources available to develop full e-commerce stores in such a tight timeframe. For other shop owners, their products or services just aren’t suited to retail via the web; variable pricing, massive product lines and lots of low-value, high-volume items are just some of the obstacles.

That said, you don’t need a massive budget or deep tech skills in order to keep selling through lockdown. For retailers without the resources or the types of products needed for a fully digital shop, there are options. While the government has only mentioned ‘click-and-collect’ in the latest lockdown briefings and documents, there are other alternatives if you want to avoid a complete shutdown during a very important trading period:

Prommt supports 'call-and-collect'

Call & Collect

You don’t need a fully functioning online store in order to sell goods over the phone. If your customers know what you stock, they can call your shop and order goods for collection. Obviously when goods are ordered, you’ll want that collection to be ‘contact-free’ so you’ll need a suitable system for maintaining physical distance when goods are picked up.

Prommt provides a perfect payment solution for secure, remote payments. You can send customers a payment link for the exact amount and ensure that payments are made remotely before the goods are collected. It’s much safer than simply taking card details over the phone, protecting you from fraud and potential chargebacks while at the same time eliminating face-to-face transactions and ensuring customers don’t need to hang about needlessly when picking up orders. During the first wave of lockdowns, many of our hardware clients effectively used Prommt to support “call-and-collect’ models that helped them continue trading.

Prommt supports 'Click-and-Collect'

Click & Collect Lite

Alternatively, you can easily use social media to display your best-selling products and provide instructions for placing orders via telephone or direct message. Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram can be turned into great shopfronts easily and with a payment solution like Prommt, you can implement an effective ‘click-and-collect’ type system without the need to invest fully in a full e-commerce front-end. Prommt allows you to paste payment links directly into any online channel so you can show your products and then request payment directly via your social media. With shops set to close again suddenly, it’s unlikely that you’d have your webshop ready by the time we’re all reopening again in 6 weeks.

Prommt supports video consultations

Virtual Tours, Classes & Consultations

If you offer services rather than goods, you may be able to offer online consultations or deliver that service via video call. Fitness classes, dance lessons, house showing and education are all examples of services that moved online successfully back in March. At Prommt, we saw many doctors coming to the platform to handle payments associated with online consultations. Even shops who sell physical goods can make use of tools like Zoom or Facebook Live to replace in-store browsing with video demos that let the customer see the products you have.

Contact-Free Deliveries

You can go even further to reach vulnerable customers or those forced into isolation. If your customers can see your products on your site and via social media, they could call or email to arrange a delivery. If you’ve got a suitable vehicle and staff who might otherwise be furloughed, contact-free delivery services might offer another way for you to keep trading during lockdown. Prommt provides an easy way to manage the payments and administration associated with such a service. If you already take card payments in the shop, you could be up and running with Prommt within a week.

“With remote consultations, we did not have the usual point of contact where we were paid for our services. We had seen Prommt in use elsewhere and followed it up. We have been using it since late March and we are delighted with it. Most importantly our patients are also. We definitely see a place for this system in the future for our business after the pandemic.”

Dr. Fionnuala NíGhráinne – Dolmen Family Medical Practice

The next 6 weeks will be tough but there are ways that retailers can mitigate the impact and continue to generate revenue. Those who adapt will emerge from lockdown better placed than the competition and ready to capitalise.

Whatever model you choose, payments are a key consideration. You want to adhere to the guidelines; avoiding face-to-face transactions, maintaining physical distance and providing an easy way for customers to pay. You also want to protect those payments, ensuring that you aren’t susceptible to fraud or chargebacks as you deal with customers remotely. Prommt offers an effective solution to all of these payment challenges, allowing you to focus on selling as much as you possibly can throughout this challenging time.