The Federal Reserve Financial Services recently released a 2025 payments report that found cash accounted for 14% of all US consumer payments in 2024, while credit and debit cards accounted for 65% of payments.
The report also found that U.S. consumers made an average of 11 payments per month with a mobile phone in 2024, up from four payments since 2018—an increase of 175% in six years.
While cash payments are still relatively common, recent data shows that consumers are regularly opting for different payment methods in favor of cash; a move that hasn’t gone unnoticed by business owners.
Many businesses, from retail to hospitality, are opting to overhaul their payment technology to offer a better experience for their customers while saving time and money for their business.
That’s where Lightspeed steps in.
Lightspeed’s unified point of sale (POS) and payments platform provides businesses with all the tools they need to run and grow their business from one fast, flexible platform. With payments seamlessly embedded into the POS, businesses can boost efficiency, eliminate manual entry, save time on reconciliations and save money that can be reinvested back into the business.
To understand exactly how Lightspeed has helped businesses in the US and around the world, we sat down with a range of owners and managers to chat about how Lightspeed’s platform has helped them to scale and grow.
Let’s dive in.
- Smart tipping workflows
- Saves time and ensures accuracy
- Secure payments
- Quick and accurate reconciliation
- Save on processing fees
- Financial information in one place
- Eliminates human error
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1. Smart tipping workflows
South Bark Dog Wash increased tipping revenue by 11% thanks to Lightspeed Payments.
The pet supplies and dogwashing business has been in operation for more than two decades in San Diego, California.
As a small business competing in a busy niche, South Bark was stuck using multiple providers for their POS, payments and tipping needs—an inefficient setup that couldn’t last.
Lightspeed’s reporting capabilities were what first drew the team to the platform, but the smart tipping workflows meant they no longer needed a second payment processor to manage tips. With integrated payments, there are fewer steps to taking tips, making it a smoother experience for both customers and employees.
“As a small business, a lot of people tip us on retail purchases. So with tipping through Lightspeed Payments, tips have gone up about 11% with people tipping on retail purchases, not just grooming.”
2. Seamless, accurate payments
As a busy cafe, St. Judes in Sydney, Australia, needs to quickly process transactions to keep queues short and minimize customer wait times—every second saved or optimized means more cash for their bottom line.
With their old payment system, the team was spending unnecessary time manually punching in the price of each order into their payment terminal. Not only was this time-consuming, but it was also prone to human error, creating variances.
With Lightspeed’s embedded payment system, Adam Celestino, owner of St. Judes, explains how the business overcame these issues.
“We’ve had Lightspeed payments now for a month, and it’s saved us double the time because you only input into Lightspeed, and boom, the payments are there for the customer.”
“It’s all integrated through the POS system properly now. So yeah, we’re saving heaps of time.”
Not only has Lightspeed Payments saved time, but it also ensures accuracy, minimizing variances and making reconciliation a breeze for the team at St. Judes.
“Variances just don’t exist anymore because everything runs through the POS… It’s just made it so much easier.”
“We get the reports every single day about what’s come through, and it’s just brought everything into one bit of software, one spot for us to see everything that we want.”
3. Secure payments
Neal’s Yard is a prominent cosmetics and skincare brand in the UK. They implemented Lightspeed Payments across 40+ stores—a significant undertaking with operational and security concerns that Lightspeed’s unified solution alleviated.
“We went out to the market with a long list of criteria… and the only one that ticked all of the boxes was Lightspeed,” says Paul Stephens, Head of Data & Technology.
“Lightspeed Payments was an obvious choice for us because of the security and the simplicity it provides, and the integration with the system.”
“I always have a focus on confidentiality, integrity, availability and simplicity as my core pillars, and so it just made complete sense to go with Lightspeed payments because it fulfils all of those criteria.”
4. Quick and accurate reconciliation
With three locations in the Carolinas and Florida, Opulence of Southern Pines focuses on handpicking luxury bed and bath items.
After years of using an antiquated system, they upgraded to Lightspeed and experienced improvements across their multi-store operations.
“Business has grown since using Lightspeed, because Lightspeed has allowed my sales teams to spend more time on the sales floor, giving customers that personal attention to offer a better experience in the store,” explains Tanda Jarest, Owner of Opulence of Southern Pines.
One of Tanda’s favourite things about Lightspeed is how quick, easy and accurate it is to reconcile payments each month, which used to be a time-consuming task.
Thanks to Lightspeed’s embedded payments, the process only takes minutes, rather than a whole day. Plus, with everything unified in one system, there are no mistakes or discrepancies in their revenue—ensuring a smooth and error-free financial operation.
“Lightspeed Payments reduced errors by 100%. Before Lightspeed Payments, I had four terminals, and I had four statements that had to be reconciled every month. It was a whole entire day process. Now it takes ten minutes to reconcile everything.”
5. Save on processing fees
City Bird is a curated gift shop with a focus on products that celebrate its hometown, Detroit, and was co-founded by sibling team Emily and Andy Linn.
With Lightspeed, the City Bird team manages everything from payments to inventory from one platform, giving them the freedom to sell anywhere and innovate.
“We’ve used Lightspeed for more than a decade, and there’s always been something more that our business could grow into with Lightspeed. It’s helped us find new paths for the business, find new efficiencies and new ways to grow,” says Andy.
For Andy, one of the best things about Lightspeed Payments is the money they’ve managed to save on payment processing.
“We love Lightspeed Payments,” comments Andy. “We switched about a year and a half ago, and they shaved about half a point off of our payment processing cost, which is huge.”
But that’s not all. From the sleek hardware to the intuitive software and reliability, Lightspeed Payments has had a huge impact on their operations.
“The hardware and software are just far superior to anything we’ve used before. The terminal is sleek and modern, and has all the features we need,” says Andy.
“The software is fantastic and intuitive, and it’s great how it links right into Lightspeed. So if you want to see payments that were processed, you can just click some buttons right in the POS screen on the iPad and see the payment as it comes through.”
“It’s very intuitive for all staff to use as needed, and it works well. We’ve also found in the past, sometimes, other processors have downtime or a lot of bugs and a lot of issues, and we really haven’t seen that with Lightspeed Payments.”
6. All financial information in one place
Active Baby Co. is a multi-store retailer in Australia that sells on baby wear and accessories. With expansion front of mind, consolidating payments and sales reporting is the priority for Emily Ciappara, Active Baby Co’s Accounts Manager.
“The payments have been much easier in the sense of everything’s kind of just all in one; I don’t have to worry about my Afterpay account and then my ANZ account and then all the different kinds of ways people can pay.”
Lightspeed’s unified approach has also simplified their process by bringing together their financial information in one place.
“It’s all just done together, so I don’t have to worry too much about finding information from different places. It’s all within Lightspeed, which is really helpful.”
Plus, with plans to open more stores over the coming years, Emily wanted to ensure the management team could understand the numbers she reported.
“Everything tends to be pretty simple… When I balance the three stores at the end of the month, I don’t have too many issues,” says Emily. “It’s all within Lightspeed, which is really helpful.”
7. Eliminates human error
Cubitt House is a family of eight luxurious pubs, restaurants and boutique hotels in London and each venue has its own distinct personality and a connection to the community.
After expanding from five locations to eight in the space of a year, Cubbit House needed a POS and payments platform that could be relied upon to scale with the business.
“One of the key selling points of Lightspeed is that it allows us to operate as five venues or 3,000–it’s scalable,” said Marta Tokarz, Head of Beverage and Bar Operations.
With eight locations to run, Cubitt House couldn’t afford to waste time on manual work. That’s why Lightspeed Payments was the perfect solution for the pub group.
“Lightspeed Payments improves our close of day by eliminating human error. Previously, you’d have to use all your printouts from the day, all the slips from PDQs and transactions in order to match them and get clarity. With Lightspeed, everything is in one place,” Marta explained.
How can Lightspeed’s unified platform help your business thrive?
Lightspeed’s unified POS and payments platform offers a range of benefits that help ambitious retail and hospitality businesses boost efficiency and improve their bottom line.
Thanks to Lightspeed’s unified platform, businesses can save time on day-to-day tasks, ensure quick and accurate reconciliation, and provide a seamless payment experience for customers. Plus, with all POS and payment information in one place, businesses can access comprehensive sales reporting to simplify their financial operations.
With Lightspeed’s embedded payments, it’s now easier than ever to streamline your processes, enhance the customer experience, and focus on scaling and growth.
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