Unattended Payment Growth Spurs Debate on Balancing Convenience, Security

Consumer preferences favor convenient, autonomous transactions, sparking the growth of self-service solutions across various industries. Unattended payments are driving this trend, providing customers with efficient, independent ways to complete purchases.

Unattended payments, which allow customers to complete transactions independently through self-service machines or kiosks, are expected to reach $129 billion globally by 2030. This market is expanding beyond retail, with sectors like hospitality, transportation, healthcare, and entertainment adopting these systems for greater convenience.

Building Trust in Unattended Payment Systems

Challenges remain, though, including low satisfaction with self-checkout interfaces and privacy concerns. Businesses are focusing on improving usability, security and customer trust. As the market grows, technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics are expected to elevate customer experiences while balancing automation with human interaction when necessary.

A positive user experience can help mitigate these concerns, as intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces instill trust, according to John Mitchell, CEO and co-founder of Episode Six.

“One of the main challenges businesses face in encouraging the adoption of unattended payment systems is trust,” Mitchell said in an interview with PYMNTS. “Customers often question the security and reliability of these solutions, particularly in self-checkout or kiosk environments where human interaction is absent. To drive adoption, businesses will ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience. Systems with a low learning curve and frictionless functionality help build confidence and increase adoption rates.”

The Evolving Role of Unattended Payments

Certain industries like transit and fleet management, Mitchell added, have successfully enhanced customer experiences through unattended payments.

“By saving time and offering secure, user-friendly options, self-service kiosks and checkout systems have gained widespread acceptance,” he said. “As technology evolves, more sectors are likely to follow suit.”

Simplifying Payment Interfaces

The importance of simplicity and clarity in payment interfaces cannot be overstated, according to Thad Peterson, strategic advisor, Datos Insights. In an interview with PYMNTS, Peterson noted that while self-service solutions offer convenience, businesses must ensure real-time human assistance is accessible when needed.

“Friction is failure in payments,” Peterson said. “The interface has to be simple to understand and use. As for real-time assistance, that’s an issue related to effective staffing, which is often why unattended is installed in the first place. Businesses need to have an effective strategy to provide human assistance quickly. And chatbots aren’t a solution if the consumer is standing in front of a kiosk trying to buy a hamburger.”

The Future of Autonomous Shopping

Minimizing friction in payment systems aligns with current consumer expectations toward more seamless, autonomous shopping experiences. According to a PYMNTS Intelligence report, “Commerce Transformed: How AI and IoT Are Rebooting Self-Service Retail,” a collaboration with Cantaloupe, consumer demand for frictionless, autonomous shopping experiences is rising, with self-service commerce becoming a key element of modern retail, driven initially by the pandemic and now as an expectation.

Advancements in AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) are addressing issues like shrinkage and inefficiencies, enhancing customer experiences while optimizing inventory management and reducing losses, the report noted. These advancements are helping businesses move past traditional retail constraints, creating opportunities for seamless, contactless shopping and paving the way for a future where physical and digital retail boundaries blur.

Peterson believes unattended payments are ideally suited for specific sectors, lending themselves “perfectly” to unattended retail (machines/mini-stores), quick-service restaurants, and ticket purchases. While unattended systems offer operational efficiency, he said they don’t completely replace the need for human interaction, especially in high-value transactions.

“High dollar generally needs high touch,” Peterson said. “It’s an expectation of the customer and it’s also an opportunity for the business to strengthen relationships with high value customers. Unattended can reduce the number of FTEs needed in an operation, but it generally can’t eliminate the need for people.”

Addressing Security Risks in Unattended Payment Systems

As for security and privacy, though technological advances like EMV and NFC have improved the safety of payment transactions, businesses must address the physical security risks that can arise from unattended setups.

“The bigger challenges are risks to consumers of robbery or data theft if they’re conducting a transaction in a location that puts the consumer at risk,” Peterson said. “Highly visible security measures like signage and cameras can mitigate the risk, but it will never get completely eliminated.”

As Peterson highlighted, security risks at unattended payment locations are a big concern, and no amount of surveillance can fully eliminate them. Allison Miller, consultant and faculty member at IANS Research, expanded on these concerns in an interview with PYMNTS, noting shelf-checkout systems, one of the newer forms of unattended acceptance terminals (UATs), are particularly vulnerable to physical tampering.

“Many retailers have been experimenting with self-checkout to increase efficiency and speed up the checkout process, but some customers may be avoiding self-checkout queues due to perceived security and privacy concerns,” Miller said.

Despite the oversight of retail staff in hybrid environments, Miller said there have been incidents of self-checkout UATs being compromised — whether through payment data-stealing malware, hardware attachments or breaches that stemmed from compromised UAT devices.

To build consumer trust with unattended payment systems, businesses should monitor self-checkout queues, ensure devices are up to date with the latest security patches and implement automated monitoring for suspicious activity, Miller said. Empowering employees to recognize tampering and establish a clear response plan is essential, she added, along with educating consumers on how to spot scams and report concerns.