Dealing with store cash is getting more expensive for retailers. Rising bank fees, gas prices, and employee wages are a part of the problem. Even armored carrier and smart safe fees are rising – these usually include next-day deposit fees, security fees, and even extra charges for cash handling over the contracted monthly deposit amount.
To make it worse, desperate times are creating even more temptation for employees and consumers to take advantage of potentially vulnerable moments in the cash cycle. So, how can convenience stores, supermarkets, grocery stores, and other retailers protect themselves from rising cash costs? Here are three ways to reduce your retail cash management expenses.
Address Internal Cash Temptation, Human Error, and Labor Costs
Automating your store's cash handling processes can significantly cut costs related to internal shrinkage, mistakes, and staff time. Bulk cash counters and all-in-one cash management systems reduce employee access and temptation by automating cash counting for start-of-shift cash fund distribution, end-of-shift deposits, and breaking large bills for registers.
Automated cash counting takes the guesswork out of how much money is being handed out and deposited, eliminating human mistakes. Just don’t be fooled into thinking a single not acceptor will cut it. Most businesses with single-note equipment end up hand-counting the money before taking the time to insert each individual note. Bulk acceptance is where you save big on time, temptation, and errors. Systems like BANK IN A BOX deliver this kind of complete cash automation functionality (accepting up to 300 bills in as little as 30 seconds!) to streamline labor and get funds out of employee hands faster.
Reduce or Eliminate Costly Bank Fees
Bank deposit processing fees are one of the biggest cash management expenses for retailers. Armored carriers can help reduce those costs. They do this by processing the cash through a bank vault rather than at a branch. Of course, then you are paying the armored service costs instead. That is, unless you’re receiving armored as part of your smart safe – which usually include a specific number of visits per month.
Other cash automation solutions like BANK IN A BOX completely eliminate bank fees by recycling cash into a consumer financial kiosk system rather than depositing it into a bank vault. Store cash is recycled for dispense to customers making cash withdrawals, paying bills, or purchasing money orders – no bank fees required.
But doesn’t that keep more money in your store and create more risk? Quite the opposite, actually.
Lower Risks of Consumer Crime on Cash
Most retailers keep at least a week's worth of cash deposits sitting in a back office safe or smart safe awaiting armored car pickup. That's a lot of cash creating a lot of temptation for crime.
Regular cash recyclers help alleviate some of that problem by repurposing a portion of those funds back into register tills. But, at the end of the day, the money ends up right back in the recycler – plus some.
With BANK IN A BOX, cash deposits are recorded, reported, and deposited via ACH next day. Meanwhile, the physical cash is recycled back out of the store in the hands of customers using the system’s consumer-facing financial kiosk and ATM services. So, there is less cash in the store and an even lower risk of temptation for criminal activity.
Retail Cash Management Costs are Rising
Rising bank fees, labor costs, fuel prices, and armored carrier costs are making retail cash management expenses a key area to cut costs. Fortunately, new technologies are helping retailers automate cash handling to reduce labor and shrink. Even better, cash recycling systems can assist in eliminating bank fees altogether. Systems. like BANK IN A BOX can recycle cash reserves out of the store to consumers, further reducing criminal temptation and crime-related cash expenses.
For convenience store owners, grocery stores, supermarkets, and other retailers looking to save on rising cash management costs, modern cash automation technology addresses internal cash temptation and mistakes, costly bank deposit fees, and security risks around holding large cash reserves.
Interested to know how much money BANK IN A BOX could save you? Check out our savings estimator here!
