Dry Cleaning 4.5: Why Leading ISVs Are Upgrading Their Unattended Payments Strategy

The dry-cleaning industry has undergone several transformations in its 200-year history, starting with the discovery and early use of non-water solvents in the 1800s followed by the perc era of the mid-to-late 1900s and then the eco-friendly decades of the early 2000s. Most recently we crossed over into dry cleaning 4.0—the self-service era.

In this period, unattended payments have been key to helping advance the dry-cleaning experience. Yet today’s customers are demanding even more.

Most dry-cleaning ISVs already support lockers, kiosks, and self-service payments. But while the front-end may look modern, many platforms are still running on outdated payment infrastructure behind the scenes. SDK-based systems, hardware lock-in, and fragmented reporting are slowing down innovation, creating support headaches, and limiting growth.

That’s why forward-thinking ISVs are making the switch to cloud-based, API-driven payment solutions built not only for unattended payments—but for omnichannel growth, with support for in-person, mobile, and QR-based payments all through a single platform. Let’s call it dry cleaning 4.5.

In this article, we’ll explore why simply having unattended payments isn’t enough—and how switching to a smarter, more modern integration can streamline your operation, boost reliability, and deliver a better experience for your merchants and their customers.

Why the Dry Cleaning Industry Has Leaned Into Unattended Tech

The dry-cleaning industry began making the move to self-service in the early 2010s, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the transition, as it did in so many sectors. Health concerns and labor challenges made contactless, self-service with lockers, drop boxes, and kiosks essential. Today, a significant percentage of the 26,000 dry cleaners in the U.S. operate unattended.

Customers now expect 24/7, mobile-friendly service—with or without staff. And operators need solutions that reduce overhead without sacrificing service. ISVs are under pressure to unify experiences across all payment channels

But here’s the new, 4.5 twist: The challenge isn’t whether you support unattended payments. It’s whether your integration can support them well enough for you and your customers to keep growing.

What’s Holding Back Today’s Unattended Payment Setups

Even with a functional unattended payments model, many ISVs face a number of common pain points, including:

• Legacy SDKs that require constant maintenance and delay deployments
• Device certification roadblocks that prevent faster rollout of new hardware
• Fragmented systems across kiosk, mobile, and in-store payments
• Downtime risk due to outdated infrastructure or weak error handling
• Siloed reporting that makes reconciliation harder for operators
• Higher support costs tied to brittle or customized payment layers

Sound familiar? If you’re struggling with any or all of these integrated payments frustrations, fear not. There are simple solutions at the ready.

The Features You Need for Dry Cleaning 4.5

To meet evolving demands and use cases, dry-cleaning ISVs must now consider upgrading to a payments solution that enables:

• Cloud-based payment integrations with no SDK dependency. This gives you the flexibility, security, speed, and scalability you need.
• Remote key injection for fast, scalable device setup with no on-site installs. RKI ensures that cardholder data is encrypted at the point of interaction, keeping dry cleaners PCI-compliant and customer data safe.
• High availability infrastructure (99.999+% uptime) with built-in failover and auto-recovery. After all, if your terminals aren’t working, nothing’s working.
• Support for EMV, NFC, mobile wallets, and evolving unattended formats, such as company-branded apps and smart lockers with stored card on file. Customers want payments that are frictionless, low-maintenance, and secure, and with the right payments integration, your software can deliver all three.
• Omnichannel consistency across kiosks, lockers, mobile, and POS. Consistency not only provides a better brand experience, it also builds trust for end users and provides a unified view for merchants as well as predictable reporting and funding.
• Detailed, centralized reporting for transaction, funding, and batch insights. Merchants appreciate the ease of a one-stop-shop interface.
• Security-first architecture that reduces PCI scope and shields sensitive data. The payment partner owns the PCI scope, and you and your merchants benefit from reduced risk of data breaches, minimized audit headaches, fewer chargebacks, and enhanced end-user trust.
• Omnichannel readiness, allowing you to offer unattended, in-person, mobile, and QR-based payments through one unified platform. No need to juggle multiple providers or APIs. Instead, build out your product knowing that your payment integration is ready to handle every development with ease.

The good news is that these and other state-of-the-art integrated-payments-system features are available now from leading payments partners. If your current payments integration doesn’t have the starch to pull it off, now’s the time to look elsewhere.

Payroc Helps Dry-Cleaning ISVs Elevate Their Unattended Game—and Beyond

Payroc is a leading global integrated payments partner. Our Payroc Cloud supports modern unattended payments through a scalable, secure, and developer-friendly API—making it easier than ever for you to simplify infrastructure, focus on innovation, and confidently command dry cleaning 4.5 even as you begin to prepare for dry cleaning 5.0.

With Payroc, ISVs can:

• Gain access to a wide range of attended and unattended devices from top manufacturers.
• Support lockers, kiosks, and mobile drop-off through a single integration
• Deploy devices remotely using remote key injection and cloud-based onboarding
• Ensure 99.999+% uptime with built-in error correction and SIM card failover
• Offer merchants real-time reporting across locations and payment types
• Reduce compliance risk with tokenization and secure transaction routing
• Receive white-glove support from integration to go-to-market enablement

The result is that you and your time spend less time managing payments and more time building features your dry cleaners actually care about.

And while Payroc Cloud is purpose-built for unattended payment experiences, it also unlocks a full omnichannel payments strategy—all through the same API:

• Unattended payments via lockers, kiosks, and drop boxes, with precertified terminals approved, tested, and ready for your application
• In-person transactions at staffed locations
• Mobile and QR-based payments for on-the-go convenience
• Web-based payments using hosted fields
• Recurring and one-time billing—all seamlessly connected

With Payroc, you can deliver consistent, reliable payment experiences across every dry-cleaning touchpoint—future-proofing your platform without adding complexity.

You Already Offer Unattended—Now It’s Time to Upgrade the Infrastructure Behind It

Supporting unattended payments isn’t the finish line—it’s the foundation. But what happens when your customers want to offer mobile pickup, QR-based drop-off, or in-store card payments? With Payroc Cloud, you can offer a fully omnichannel experience that adapts to any dry-cleaning business model—while keeping payment infrastructure simple, secure, and ready to scale.

Let’s talk about how Payroc Cloud can help you modernize your unattended payment stack and grow your business faster—with less complexity and more control.