“If you build it, they will come” may be the famous (misquoted) line from the 1989 Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, but you could just as easily apply the words to the retail sector and ever-growing field of frictionless customer experience.
Bricks and mortar stores are, after all, where people visit to spend money and no longer is this through the prism of cash exclusively but with dynamic payment solutions strategies, such as AIB Merchant Services. In these times of omnichannel trading, what is sold within four walls and a roof is also being offered via online. Those who succeed in the currently challenging business environment are constantly looking to execute the best version of that offering.
Golden Discs is Ireland’s longest established, largest and most popular retail music chain. Founded in 1962 by Jack Fitzgerald and Tom Rogers, the business is now operated by Jack’s sons – Stephen, who is chief executive, and David Paul (“everyone calls me DP”), head of online.
With 20 stores operating nationwide, the business has a long and proud tradition in brick and mortar spaces, where card payment is enabled through the award-winning point-of-sale terminal, Clover by AIB Merchant Services. Since its adoption in store, customers can spend more time mulling over must-have vinyl purchases and less time focused on how they are going to pay. More than 80 per cent of the company’s transactions during April’s record store day were cashless, almost double the total of the same day in 2019, pre-pandemic. This meant that music lovers were the ultimate winners, with transaction times cut by up to five seconds, leading to shorter queues and more time to browse.
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Society has been gradually moving away from cash, but the shift was fast-forwarded by Covid-19, DP Fitzgerald says. “Ensuring that we have the capability to accept frictionless card transactions, be it within our stores or online, has been a feature of our business for some time.”
The company’s online division, goldendiscs.ie, has been running for less than six years and is going from strength to strength. The pandemic, Fitzgerald says, “was a massive accelerator for growth of the online business. Post-Covid, as soon as physical stores opened again, we saw an initial dip, as did everyone, but like-for-like sales are up year-on-year, across both our stores and online”.
Frictionless transactions
John Hoolahan, marketing director for AIB Merchant Services, says that pre-Covid, transactions were split evenly between cash and cards. “It is now skewed in favour of cards – four out of every five transactions in Ireland are cashless,” Hoolahan explains. “That change continues to accelerate in every sector, be it entertainment venues or retail environments like Golden Discs.”
“The contemporary design of our Clover terminal, which enables quicker payment transactions, fits in with the new look of the Golden Discs flagship store.
“It is now connected to the Golden Discs till system, so there is no need for any re-keying of the payment amount. This cuts down on double-entry errors and streamlines processing.
“If someone orders two CD’s and two vinyl editions, the amount comes up on the Clover screen automatically and the customer can pay by tapping with their card, phone, or watch.”
Fitzgerald believes that how you choose to pay should be a simple experience for everyone, be it cash, card or online: “Having systems that allow customers more time to focus on the various music purchases that they want is crucial.
“This technology allows our staff to process the all-important payment transaction with speed and simplicity, which enriches our customer experience,” he says.
Helen Ryan, customer success manager for AIB Merchant Services, says: “The customer experience should be seamless, as it is with Clover.”
Vinyl is Golden Discs’ lead product. “We haven’t seen such a level of vinyl album sales since the 1980s, so much so that we have launched a specialist online-only vinyl store, vinyl8.com, to cater for the dedicated vinyl enthusiast,” says Fitzgerald.
“What is very interesting is that the fastest growing sector is within 18 to 24-year-olds. With that, we’ve seen a huge level of mobile phone payments. They want to have minimal friction in completing their transactions.”
Diversity of choice
The technology has also delivered considerable administrative and security benefits for Golden Discs.
“It has taken a lot of cash out of the system,” says Fitzgerald. “That has a massive security upside in terms of the handling and dealing with money. Cash is also expensive.
“We have to pay for cash floats and cash lodgements. Those costs add up and the impact to our bottom line is notable.”
Golden Discs is not cashless, Fitzgerald reminds us. “That’s a very important point, we value diversity of choice and still retain the ability to take cash. We want to accommodate customers in whatever way they choose to pay.”
At last year’s AIB Merchant Services Retail Excellence Awards, Golden Discs won the large online retailer of the year award, something they are very proud of, says Fitzgerald.
This has been well deserved as the growth of the company’s online business has been rapid, which is why developments in support of the evolution of online services continue.
“With our website, we want to replicate that same frictionless experience that you get shopping in-store,” Fitzgerald explains. “We require payment technology at the back end that allows customers to click to add to cart and checkout in confidence.”
The service level has also been top quality, Fitzgerald says. “AIB Merchant Services make payments easy and we are really happy to recommend it to others.”
Ryan says customers don’t want to have to worry about payments, be it in-store, online or on the go. “As market leader of payment solutions in Ireland, we pride ourselves on succeeding in consistently delivering quality outcomes for our customers,” she says.
For Fitzgerald, the AIB Merchant Solutions payment solution has given him and his team the confidence and the freedom to do what they do best, which is share their love of music with their customers.
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