Delaware based Merchant Services provider Mercantile Processing Inc (MPI) saw a creative way to help one of their customers deal with multiple burglaries with no out of pocket expense to the customer – cashless payments and the Visa Cashless Challenge.

The Land of Kush— a vegetarian restaurant in Baltimore, MD was awarded $10,000 as Visa announced the 50 winners of the Visa Cashless Challenge. The prize money is intended “to assist in [the Land of Kush’s] plans for digital commerce enhancements, point-of-sale upgrades, marketing efforts and other business improvements,” the release said. The restaurant is in the process of transitioning to a cash-free system.

The Land of Kush has been a client of MPI’s since 2014, using it’s merchant and POS (point of sale) bundled solution. “MPI has seen a trend that most restaurants are almost 85% card payment currently and the remaining cash users usually are able to use cards.”  Kyle Morgan, CEO of MPI, recommended that the client participate in the Visa Cashless Challenge.

Kyle Morgan also noted that, “while going cashless means that there is now a cost on 15% of the income/funds that wasn’t there before, it ultimately means that there is a decrease in insurance premiums and theft. The increase in the credit card processing is much less than the cost attributed to the insurance and theft.  Our client invested in purchasing an additional Lavu Point of Sale station with us to ensure that the transition to cashless was smooth. With the Visa incentive, our client is now able to offset the cost of the station or invest in other ways to make their business more profitable.”

Lavu’s #1 rated iPad Point of Sale system is the world’s leading mobile POS for restaurants and bars. With Lavu’s restaurant POS software, you can say goodbye to slow service, misplaced orders, unclear sales data, and many other operational headaches. With hundreds of features supported by a cloud-based management system, Lavu POS software delivers a streamlined, intuitive interface and centralized data storage, giving management complete control and staff members an effective and simple tool that allows them to maintain the highest standards of customer service.

Visa’s Cashless Challenge contest asked small businesses in the food-service category to explain how the cashless movement could benefit their business for a chance to win a monetary prize. Small business owners said some of the top reasons their businesses prefer cash-free payments include efficiency at the point-of-sale, increased security for employees and reduced overall costs.

Another benefit of cashless payments is increased revenue due to efficiency gains. Land of Kush’s Greg Brown said “This will help us increase revenues because we can get customers in and out. Obviously the quicker you can serve customers the more money you make.”  

Visa received entries from across the United States and across a variety of food-service businesses, including coffee shops, food trucks, full-service and quick-service restaurants and juice bars. Winners were chosen based on video submissions that showed positive impact to employees, their businesses, as well as originality, creativity and passion.

Also, to help small businesses become more digitally enabled, Visa will release research later this spring, which will look at digital transformation barriers and opportunities through understanding the ways U.S. consumers and small businesses conduct commerce, make/receive payments and the costs and benefits associated with these transactions.

“When we launched the Visa Cashless Challenge, we wanted to inspire and inform merchants on the benefits and effectiveness of going cashless,” said Jack Forestell, head of global product and solutions, Visa Inc. “Since announcing the challenge, we have continued to see businesses across the country go cash-free, and Visa is committed to tapping into our innovation and technology for merchants to remain competitively connected to their consumers.”

“While we see a cash-free future on the horizon, we also realize the challenges that exist in making sure unbanked consumers have access to cashless payment methods and making sure the system is as inclusive as possible,” continues Forestell. “Visa is continuing to work with its partners on solutions that will help consumers and businesses prepare for the move towards a cashless future.”

Mercantile Processing Inc. (MPI) is a merchant services provider serving all 50 states and international clients as well. As experts in the credit card processing, point of sale, payroll and ATM products it offers, MPI positions themselves as a well respected company both locally and nationally.