Australian fintech Zeller is further refining its solutions for hospitality businesses, and recently presented the findings from its first Small Business Resilience Report, with insights into how business owners are impacted by and responding to challenging economic conditions.
The Zeller Small Business Resilience Report found a whopping 85 per cent of business owners are currently seeking cost-cutting measures, highlighting the need for innovative solutions.
From the data, the greatest factor (42pc) impacting businesses today is the increasing cost of supplies and materials. Eighty per cent of owners estimated they have seen an increase in supply costs of more than 10 per cent in the past year.
Following costs at 32 per cent was reduced consumer spending, as 67 per cent of owners raised concerns over inflation and rising interest rates negatively impacting consumer spending.
The right financial tools and technology can help businesses better understand their cashflow and financial position, and the company suggests it is seeing “adversity breeding opportunity”.
“Australian small business owners demonstrate a rare breed of determination in adapting and identifying solutions to sustain their businesses through tough times,” says Zeller’s Joshua McNicol.
“Through Zeller’s financial solutions, we’re arming business owners with real-time data from their business payments and spending to make smarter decisions to manage their business through the crunch.”
On a quest to “reimagining business banking” Zeller supports a lot of venues around the country, providing affordable EFTPOS solutions, and arming operators with more spending and transaction reporting, which can be monitored in real-time using the Zeller App.
The company recently issued a report on how spending patterns are changing in Aussie venues. Post-COVID people were opting for traditional favourites and ordering liberally, leading to higher average transactions.
This behaviour has shifted in 2023 to ordering prudently, perhaps ordering a pot or schooner instead of a pint or a snack over a main meal, and ultimately spending less.
It signals that hip pockets are being hit by inflation, and amplifies the need for venues to track and understand evolving consumer preferences.
“Across the thousands of Australian pubs, bars and venues that use Zeller Terminal, we’ve seen a shift over the past six months, which is aligned to the economic mood and sensitivity of punters,” says McNicol.
Despite the change seen in recent years, EFTPOS payments systems have largely not evolved to meet the needs of large hospitality venues, which face various checkout scenarios at the end of a sitting.
In recognition of this, Zeller has introduced a new Split Payments feature for its EFTPOS terminals that enables customers to effortlessly split a payment, either evenly by the number of diners, or by a custom value.
The feature promised to accelerate the speed of table turnover, potentially capping the dining experience with a positive checkout. It furthers the benefits of the system’s new function allowing easier tipping for waitstaff.
“Australian hospitality businesses lead the way in the adoption of new technology to elevate the dining experience,” states McNicol.
