Cashless Payments For Self-Serve Laundry Locations More Than Doubled Over Past Year

USA Technologies Inc. and Setomatic Systems (owner of the SpyderWash laundry payment platform) announced in a press release that contactless payments at self-serve laundry locations have more than doubled in the last year.

Setomatic, a designer and manufacturer of cashless payment hardware and data services for the laundry industry, and USAT, a payment technology provider of cashless and mobile transactions in self-serve retail, entered into a strategic partnership to provide customers with comprehensive cashless payment services in 2013.

The self-service laundry industry is estimated by the Coin Laundry Assn. to be a nearly $5-billion market, which in 2016 saw an average increase in business (gross dollar volume) of 11.2 percent, up from 9.6 percent in 2015. And between April 2016 and April 2017, Setomatic saw a 150 percent increase in the amount of contactless payments for laundry services.

“We recognized early on that cashless, then subsequently contactless, payments would become mainstream as consumers gained a level of comfort opting to pay using their mobile phones or even a smartwatch, so we started developing our systems to accommodate back when the World Wide Web was just starting to get traction – and that is how we came up with SpyderWash,” said Michael Schantz, president of Setomatic Systems. “With vend prices on washers in the range of $2 to $14 per wash cycle, it has become more important than ever to offer consumers the convenience of paying at the point of sale in a fast, simple and convenient way, whether it is with a simple swipe of their credit card or mobile phone using a mobile wallet like Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay. Our SpyderWash System, combined with USA Technologies’ powerful ePort Connect platform, gives our customers a soup-to-nuts service that enables credit/debit, contactless mobile payment processing, loyalty and more.”

Setomatic Systems was the first in the industry to offer hybrid payment systems, allowing machines to accept coin, credit or debit cards, RFID contactless credit cards, or NFC enabled mobile wallets. Right now, the company is the only provider in the market whose laundry payment devices accept NFC payments at the point of sale.

And through the newly launched SpyderWash App for both iOS and Android devices, Setomatic also makes it possible for consumers to manage their loyalty card balance, view transaction history and find out which SpyderWash washers and dryers are available in their local laundry. In addition, iPhone users can search for the nearest laundromats accepting Apple Pay via Apple Maps.

“Many new laundry facilities are utilizing “smart card” technology, which requires the customers to put money on a card that they then swipe when they use a machine, but Setomatic Systems has bucked the trend by embracing a consumer-first strategy that is reflected in what we believe to be the most advanced payment technology on the market,” said Maeve McKenna Duska, senior vice president of sales and marketing of USA Technologies. “The days of begging for quarters, and waiting for washers and dryers to become available are over. By offering consumers the ability to monitor the availability of a washer and dryer as well as enabling them to pay at the point of sale with whatever they keep top of wallet, creates convenience and fosters the adoption of technology, loyalty programs and much more, particularly useful amongst millennials.”