Trends to New Ways for Paying for the Car Wash

The advent of credit cards and debit cards did a lot to cause people to start carrying less cash. However, the more recent invention of more methods of mobile payments using the smartphones almost everyone is carrying has urged many of us towards going cashless. In fact, when asked how often they carried cash, 34% of respondents in the United States said either “not often” or “almost never.”

This could mean a problem for those needing to wash their cars. At least, it did in the old days. Self-service car washes generally require that the person have a sock full of quarters or put paper bills into a machine and get tokens. While these still exist today, a great many car washes – both self-service and automatic car washes are beginning incorporate cashless payment methods.

This is a good thing, considering that estimates indicate that every year, 2 billion cars get washed, resulting in sales of approximately $15 billion.

As tech-savvy consumers continue to demand the ability to pay in differing ways, including contact-less forms of payments like Apple Pay and Beacon from PayPal, car wash owners are beginning to update technology to keep up with customer demands. A car wash in Nashville recently opened a “fast lane” for those paying via Bluetooth and RFID cards.

“We are dedicated to offering car wash owners and operators the benefits that technology like touch-screen access, mobile and contactless payments, cloud storage, and digital marketing bring,” says Matt D’Souza, vice president of sales for Washify.

Car washes who continue to operate on a cash-only basis may begin to see business drying up. Globally, mobile payments using smartphone technology and personal data assistants represented 34% of global transactions. PayPal, an online payment system, now has 14 million merchants catering to its 170 million users.

Another way that car washes are accessing the increasingly digital payment trend is by offering monthly subscriptions. Customers are increasingly demanding customized services that they select for a single monthly charge. The continued success of these kinds of subscription services means that more business owners are looking to integrate this form of mobile payment technology into their business plans.

Loyalty clubs are not new to car wash operators. Customers are able to benefit by paying a monthly fee offering them access to be able to wash when they want at any location within a chain as well as save time at the car wash. It also helps to save time for owners and operators – customers enter their email address or simply scan their smartphones and begin washing.

A few years ago, mobile payment technology was struggling to take off mostly because consumers were unaware that the options existed. This has changed. Google Wallet and Apple Pay, as well as RFID-enabled debit and credit cards, are becoming more the norm than ever before. Retailers and businesses, including car washes, are looking to move with technology by adopting these methods of payment and digital marketing to reach their customers.