Credit the Appeal of Cash

This week, Walmart.com launched their “Pay with Cash” program. “Pay with Cash” is designed for customers who lack a checking account and credit card, but want to take advantage of the broad item selection and ease of shopping online. The customer places an order via Walmart.com and pays with cash at a Walmart store within 48 hours, at which point the order is shipped.
     An opinion piece on the Forbes website ridicules the concept: If a shopper can’t get a credit card or a checking account, how would they ever have a computer? In my opinion, this opinion piece is what’s been called “marketing to the mirror.” For retailing success, we must broaden target markets beyond ourselves. The seed of “Pay with Cash” was Walmart’s epiphany that only 15% of transactions at the stores use some form of credit. The Walmart shoppers are needing to, or at least preferring to, pay with cash.
     And there’s PayNearMe. According to the Dow Jones & Company Inc. blog AllThingsD.com, Danny Shader, CEO of PayNearMe, introduces his company to potential investors by joking that they will probably never in their lives use the service. Those who do use the service place orders online and then can pay in cash at a 7-Eleven store.
     Mr. Shader goes on to say that estimates of the percentage of American households not having a bank account run as high as 24%. A target market for PayNearMe is teenagers too young to have their own credit. One of the first PayNearMe partnerships was with SteelSeries, a retailer of video gaming equipment.
     Last August, Walmart announced they’re expanding the list of checks they’ll cash. In addition to payroll and government-issued checks which have been accepted for some time, Walmart stores will now accept insurance, pension, and student loan checks. The goal is to encourage shoppers to feel more wealthy while in the store so they’ll spend more. Having cash in your pocket does that.
     Then for the holiday season, Walmart brought back layaway. Shoppers could put aside store merchandise and make cash payments on it until the full price has been met. Here, too, Walmart wasn’t alone. Other large retailers like Sears and Toys R Us and small retailers like the three Ritzy Ragz & Thingz stores in Northern California were among those laying away reservations about the technique.
     And giving full credit to the consumer appeal of cash.

Click below for more: 
Broaden Target Markets Beyond Yourself
Inject Spending Power into Shoppers’ Pockets
Give Change in Varied Denominations
Lay Away Reservations with Layaway