Pay by Bank Express Lanes are one of our most highly recommended best practices for taking your Pay by Bank (referred to occasionally in this article as "PBB") workflow to the next level, enhancing your customer journey from order placement to checkout and reducing customer wait times. Consider these proven statistics on Pay by Bank use and how an express lane could drive this impact even further for your store:
- Prepaid Pay by Bank orders see 57% fewer no-show cancellations compared to cash orders.
- Pay by Bank customers spend 31% more per order than cash customers.
- Creates an omni-channel payments experience, with Pay by Bank as the consistent payment experience across e-commerce, mobile, kiosk, delivery, and in-store.
01 Evaluate Your Salesfloor
Evaluate Your Current State
- Trace the natural path customers take when entering - where do they pause? Where do they bottleneck?
- Note dead zones, high-traffic pinch points, and areas customers avoid.
- Watch where customers tend to queue already; your Express Lane should either align with this behavior or intentionally redirect it.
Future State with Pay by Bank Express Lane
For the Express Lane area, consider:
- Will there be a pickup window?
- Will orders be prefilled and ready for budtenders to grab upon confirming the customer's name and required identification?
- You know your team and store best, what processes or pathways for product handoff will be needed and can be created for an expedited flow on these prepaid orders (i.e. will the team fill orders by pickup time in batches, FIFO methodology, what will be done for orders that miss their pickup window?)
For smaller sales floors, the Express Lane must:
- Not block key merchandising (especially high-margin areas).
- Do not interrupt existing customer browsing journeys when possible.
- Allow straight-line access from entry or mid-store, ideally without crossing the main browsing loop.
Stores using Pay by Bank with Express Lanes today recommend:
- Along the front right (U.S. behavior bias: customers naturally turn right).
- Near an existing checkout, but with its own clearly designated queue. We'll talk about signage later in this article, section 03.
- Adjacent to a wall rather than in the middle of the store. In other words, keep the Express Lane along the outer walls so folks can get in and out without running into other traffic on the floor.
- If feasible, consider a locker-style pickup area behind the check-in counter or host area for preorders with Pay by Bank.
- Ensure the host POS terminal can access the check-in swimlane and the Pay by Bank Express Lane.
- The host can validate ID, open the secured locker where the customer’s order has been picked and stored, and finalize payment without the customer ever entering the sales floor.
- Discuss this model with your security and compliance teams to ensure the full staff is trained on the procedure and to determine the best path for the movement of product from the vault to locker storage in your store.
All of the above will help you determine exactly how much space behind the counter may be needed for the best customer experience, without disrupting existing flows for other staff and customers.
02 Configure POS Swimlanes & Statuses
In Backoffice
- In POS backoffice: Navigate to Registers > Configure.
- Under Guestlist Statuses, add a status for your Express Lane if you wish.
- Use a title that makes sense for your staff and your goal with the Express Lane.
- Will you use the Express Lane only for Pay by Bank preorders placed online or at kiosks?
- Will the Express Lane be open to in-store purchases as long as Pay by Bank is the preferred method?
- If your location is signed up for the mobile app, allowing for Pay by Bank's scan to pay feature, this can truly keep lines moving quickly, even for in-store purchases.
- Examples: PBB Express Lane - Preorders or PBB ONLY as the "swimlanes" or guest list statuses.
- Next consider if you will create a new register in backoffice dedicated to the PBB Express Lane or modify an existing outlier register (one not often used) to serve this function. Name this register in a clear way for your team "PBB ONLY" or "Express Lane"
- Determine who will be responsible for moving the filled orders to the correct swimlane status:
- If the budtender running the express lane is responsible for moving orders to this status, ensure filters are also set to view at least Order Source > Dutchie, to capture any orders placed online and allowing them to easily find those with order status “Pay by Bank”.
- If the fulfillment team will manage the order status and movement, leave the dedicated express lane register filtered to the “PBB Express Lane” status only.
At the Register
- Access your POS URL and log in to the dedicated register for PBB Express Lane transactions.
- On the Guestlist screen, tap the filter icon to limit what that specific register can see. If filters already exist on this register, remove them.
- Be sure to check the "Show empty status columns" toggle on the right side of the Filter view.
- In the "Status" section, choose to filter by the PBB Express Lane status you configured in the above steps (ex. PBB Express Lane - Preorder).
- This register is ready for use with your Express Lane for Pay by Bank!