Unwrap 3 More Ways To Get Paid This Holiday Season

The holidays are almost here, and with them comes a big surge in shopping, gifting, and payments. As consumers become ever-increasingly tech savvy, businesses are adopting new trends to enhance the shopping experience. With that in mind, here are five payment trends to keep an eye on this holiday season and into 2025. 1. The takeover of mobile wallets This year, more Aussies than ever will leave their physical wallets at home when they head out to do their Christmas shopping. Consider the following three statistics: In 2022, 30% of in-person card payments were made via mobile devices, up from 10% in 2019. Source: Reserve Bank of Australia Over 15.3 million cards were registered to mobile wallets in 2022, a 760% increase from 2018. Source: Australian Banking Association. A 2022 survey revealed that 69% of Australians felt confident enough using mobile wallets to leave their physical wallets at home. Source: Marqeta If we piece those three stats together, it’s clear to see the shift away from physical cards, and towards mobile wallet payments, is continuing to pick up speed. Make sure your business is set up for seamless electronic payment acceptance, whether your customers are tapping with their card or mobile wallet.  Zeller Terminal  equips your business to accept physical cards as well as mobile payments via smartphones and smartwatches. 2. Selling via social From Instagram and TikTok offering in-app shopping experiences to businesses selling solely via Facebook Marketplace and Instagram DMs, social platforms have become key places for payments to take place. Payment Links , which are built right into Zeller Virtual Terminal , are perfect for  businesses selling on social media. This handy tool lets you easily generate a secure, clickable payment link that you can simply send to your customers in a DM. We’ve seen many innovative artisan businesses utilising Payment Links to sell quickly and easily via social media, without the need for a permanent, e-commerce enabled website. Instagram or Facebook Marketplace + Payment Links will help set you up for success, too. 3. Enhanced fraud protection They might call it the silly season, but with the sophistication of fraudsters these days, you don’t have to be silly to be scammed this Christmas. Thankfully, the payments world is fighting back with advanced fraud detection tools, including AI-powered analytics and biometric authentication. For shoppers, this means increased protection of their funds, and for businesses it means fewer chargebacks and losses. Learn more about how Zeller keeps you and your customers safe here . 4. Accepting payments via Tap to Pay Turning a smartphone into a payment terminal can be a game-changer for small businesses. Tap to Pay works on selected iPhone and Android smartphones, making it super simple to take payments wherever you are with just a mobile app, or even to use as a second EFTPOS machine when things get busy. While Tap to Pay is still an emerging innovation in payments, we’re already seeing many mobile businesses adopt it as a way to accept payments in lieu of sending online invoices or carrying an EFTPOS terminal with them at all times. 5. The inexorable rise of self-checkout As we move into 2025 and beyond, expect to see more self-service kiosks, from fast food restaurants through to airports, department stores, supermarkets, universities… you name it. Couple this with QR codes on pub tables and cafe menus, one thing is clear – love it or hate it, self-checkout is only going to become increasingly common. With advancements in self-checkout technology making it easier for smaller businesses to set up a kiosk too, we’re looking forward to seeing this innovative new technology in a wider variety of scenarios. If you’d like some expert advice on setting up your business with the right payment and POS solutions for this festive season and beyond, speak to the Zeller Sales team .

Christmas is crunch time. Before your customers start racing to buy gifts for friends and family or picking up their festive essentials, you’ll want to be certain your business is set up to simultaneously maximise their last-minute shopping experience – and your profits. With that said, here are seven tips to help ensure this Christmas brings good cheer to your business and your customers. 1. Extend your trading hours into the O Holy Night. Longer trading hours make things a lot easier for shoppers with packed schedules. Promote your extended trading hours via store signage, social media and email, so customers know you're there when they need you. Consider offering special ‘late-night exclusives’ or ‘last-minute discounts’ to encourage foot traffic during these extra hours. Top tip: Most promotional emails go unopened, so make sure your subject line gets the ‘extended hours’ message across without any additional clicks required. 2. Offer shipping that’s swifter than Santa. Make life easier for online shoppers by offering discounted express shipping, and make sure to clearly display cutoff dates for guaranteed Christmas delivery. Highlight gift-ready products that are eligible for expedited shipping to further simplify the shopping journey. Also keep in mind that Australia Post also advises their own Christmas delivery cut-off dates , so be sure yours are aligned with theirs to avoid any risk of delayed orders. 3. Gift wrapping, all wrapped up. Save customers time and hassle by offering gift-wrapping services. Free or paid, it’s a thoughtful touch they’re sure to appreciate, especially if they’re not much chop at wrapping gifts. Better yet, add extra flair by using festively branded wrapping paper. For example, a Santa hat hanging off your logo could be a good design thoughtstarter. Top tip: If you’re using Zeller POS Lite to sell Christmas gifts this holiday season, add ‘gift wrapping’ as a modifier so you can track how frequently customers request it. You can learn how to apply modifiers to a cart here . 4. More merry helpers. The Christmas rush can be overwhelming, so ensure you have enough staff to manage the extra foot traffic and handle queries efficiently. Make sure your team members are up to speed and across any new processes to ensure peak service during peak season. A little extra training can go a long way. 5. Deck the halls of your website. An easy-to-navigate, festively decorated site will draw in time-crunched buyers. Adding a ‘Last-Minute’ section or countdown banners can create urgency and attract shoppers looking for quick solutions. Top tip: A curated gift guide on your website can be a neat idea, but if it’s too tricky to pull off in time simply create a PDF version to email to customers. It’s a great way to build and drive engagement from your subscriber list, too. 6. Many happy returns. Ease customers' hesitation with a flexible return policy. It’s a simple way to encourage impulse purchases. Promote this benefit in store and on your website (and perhaps via email or social media too) to reassure shoppers that buying now doesn’t mean risking regret later. You can also add your flexible return policy to your receipt printed, emailed, or sent via SMS from Zeller Terminal too — learn how to do that here . 7. Sleigh the essentials. Make sure you’re stocked up stocking stuffers, greeting cards, wrapping, and any other items that make easy and essential add-ons at the checkout. Consider bundling these items into ready-to-go holiday kits for added convenience. By putting these strategies into play, you’ll not only provide your customers with a seamless, thoughtful shopping experience, but also give yourself the best chance to boost your holiday sales. If you’d like to learn more about payments and POS solutions to make spirits bright this Christmas, give our local team a call on 1800 935 537 and we’ll be happy to help.

This year our commitment was to continue to enable and support you, our merchants, with the most innovative payments and financial solutions available. Guided by your invaluable feedback and ideas, we made Zeller even easier, faster, and more powerful in 2024. With no further ado, here’s a wrap-up of the highlights our team delivered for you this year. Zeller Terminal We launched the next-generation in payments, Zeller Terminal 2. Our latest payment terminal , Zeller Terminal 2, comes with a free built-in point-of-sale (POS), Zeller POS Lite. Engineered in Melbourne, this new payment solution comes with powerful sales and item reporting, a larger digital screen, downloadable QR code receipts and much more, helping you to elevate the checkout experience at a very affordable price. Help save the planet, one receipt at a time. To help you reduce your environmental footprint, we made further advancements by offering a QR code digital receipt option , alongside SMS and email receipts. Customers can now scan the QR code to download their receipt after making a payment. Zeller Terminal is now more customisable than ever. Innovative features such as light or dark screen modes, and customisable screensavers to give your payment terminal a seamless look that complements your brand or business aesthetic, are now available on both Zeller Terminal 1 and 2 — making it the most customisable EFTPOS solution available on the market. Zeller App POS Lite is now available on your smartphone. Mobile selling is now even easier with the launch of Zeller POS Lite on Zeller App . Using Tap to Pay , you can quickly add items, apply discounts, accept contactless payments, and send itemised digital receipts directly from your smartphone. Tap to Pay. Now on Android. With 44% of Australians owning an Android smartphone, Tap to Pay on Android (built right into the Zeller App), provides more businesses with an affordable solution to accept contactless payments, without the need for a physical EFTPOS terminal. Sort your business savings with a tap. You can now activate and manage your Zeller Savings Account directly from Zeller App, making it easier to transfer funds and earn a higher interest on your business savings than you would with a big-4 bank. Issue corporate cards from anywhere. We added even more flexibility to Zeller Corporate Cards with the ability to issue new cards, manage budgets and monitor transactions directly from your smartphone with the Zeller App. Point of Sale A free point-of-sale baked into Zeller Terminal 2. Zeller POS Lite is a mobile POS system designed for micro and small businesses. This free, easy-to-use POS solution enables you to categorise your menu, record items and modifiers sold, send receipts, and deliver a fast and secure checkout experience. Oracle and Zeller. Partnering up to power hospitality payments. Zeller joined forces with the global leader in restaurant POS systems, Oracle, to provide an end-to-end solution for managing orders and securely accepting fast payments with our new integration to Simphony POS . Zeller Dashboard Item Reporting for Zeller Invoices and POS Lite. As you sell your items with Zeller POS Lite or Zeller Invoices, we’ve made it even easier to see what’s selling best and which items aren’t performing with real-time item sales reporting. Easier expense management. Life got a little simpler for finance teams, who are often managing expenses across multiple projects, departments and locations. Zeller corporate cardholders can now easily upload receipts and tax invoices into transactions they’ve made, categorise and append notes to expenses. These small features help finance teams to simplify expense reconciliation at the end of the month, saving time and reducing admin. Security 3D Secure adds another layer of security for online payments. You and your customers benefit from an additional layer of security for online credit card transactions made via Zeller Virtual Terminal, Payment Links and Invoices to protect from fraudulent activity. Cardholders will be prompted to verify certain payments via two-factor authentication triggered by their card-issuing bank. Notifications Real-time account notifications. We introduced transfer summaries and remittance receipts via SMS and email, and account security notifications in the Notification Centre from Zeller Dashboard and App. See everything you need to know from amount, date, time, account and recipient information with a transfer summary, plus the ability to download remittance receipts to send via SMS or email. Choose how you want to be notified. Customise your notification settings to let us know the best way to give you transaction, account, and security alerts in the Notification Centre. Prefer SMS? No problem, simply update your notification settings with a click. We’re proud to have delivered over 100 new features to your Zeller Account this year, ensuring you have the most seamless and efficient experience when managing your payments and business finances. Looking to 2025, we’re excited to continue to deliver even more powerful features to support your business. If there are features you would like to see in your Zeller Account, we want to hear about it! Send your ideas to feedback@myzeller.com.