While one would expect South Africa to fall behind in terms of touch and payment technologies, some local ideas have actually been copied internationally.
Speaking to ITWeb on the side-lines of Tactile Technologies and Newland ID’s 2016 Expo in Cape Town, Mauro Mercuri, group director of Tactile Technologies, noted how the touch-screen till points being used at Mr Price stores have been copied by retailers in Holland and the US.
“So while you’d expect South Africa to be behind, in some cases, the reverse is true. South Africa has a lot of smart, creative and innovative thinkers. People who have to think outside of the box because of the hurdles they face here.”
Discussing trends in the local touch technology and payments space, he pointed to how the number of applications being developed for these consumer technologies has skyrocketed. “We see an endless list of applications for touch.”
Within the space, things are going mobile, stated Mercuri, expressing caution about the mobile hype. “In my personal opinion, some of this mobile technology is a bit overrated. A lot of things in the technology space come out and create a hype. But these innovations need to prove themselves.”
Mercuri said businesses need to think about how this technology is implemented, if it is secure and stable, what it costs and if it actually delivers the value-add they expect it to offer.
Discussing mobile point of sale (mPOS), he believes European markets are already showing signs that mPOS does not actually deliver the level of benefits businesses were expecting. These more mature markets are realising mobile solutions may be more suitable in smaller businesses and not for retailers with hundreds or thousands of outlets. “It just doesn’t deliver on that scale,” asserted Mercuri.
From an e-commerce point of view, South Africa still has some catching up to do, he said, continuing that international markets are more willing to shop online while local consumers are still warming up to the idea.
According to Mercuri, in many cases, solutions are becoming more “self-service”. People no longer have to fill in forms or visit a store or business – everything is automated. One such solution is a job search offering for government, which makes employment opportunities available to job-seekers via a touch-screen kiosk.
“Touch-screen technologies and automated payments are helping businesses and bodies like the government to communicate better with the man on the street and get across the information they want to get across.”
