Jinani owns a roadside stall selling fruit and vegetables. She obtains her fruit from a wholesaler and grows her own vegetables to sell. She only accepts payment by cash from her customers.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2025). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] Primary
2. [1] Tertiary
3. [1] Immediate payment/Jinani does not want to wait for payment/quicker transaction providing credit would delay this process/improves cash flow
4. [1] Accepting cheques or credit could lead to bad debts if the cheque bounces/customers do not pay/add to costs
5. [1] Does not want to pay for bank for credit card/transaction charges does not want to pay extra for low-priced items/does not want to pass credit card fees onto customers by increasing fruit/vegetable prices
6. [1] Cash is legal tender has to accept cash
7. [1] Cash helps Jinani's cash flow to pay for more stock
8. [1] May not have electricity/network/equipment for cashless payment methods to swipe cards/make transfers
9. [1] Does not have to worry about credit card fraud/scams which involves time/money/cash cannot be hacked
10. [1] Wholesalers warehouse/store the fruit and vegetables by buying, for example apples, at harvest time/ahead of demand
11. [1] and releasing them gradually over the year by having constant/controlling supply
12. [1] the wholesaler can reduce the wider price fluctuations
13. [1] when prices of fruit and vegetables increase to avoid shortages
14. [1] the wholesaler by meeting the demand by supplying fruit and vegetables to charge an equilibrium price this is a result of supply and demand
15. [1] (i) 270
16. [1] (ii) 410
17. [1] 5% of the invoice total is deducted/taken as discount
18. [1] if paid within 30 days
19. [1] Cashless payments are when consumers buy goods and services from a business using electronic methods of payment. Businesses allow payments with cards or through apps, but they do not accept cash.
20. [1] Reduces operation costs as there is no need for armoured trucks to pick up money/or banks to charge fees for accepting coin deposits
21. [1] Checkout efficiency reduces queue times more customer satisfaction
22. [1] Payment gets validated automatically/more accurately than making mistakes with cash handling so preventing in losses
23. [1] Quicker checkout is preferred by customers so more likely to attract new customers or to shop online
24. [1] Greater security/less theft leading to less loss of money
25. [1] Saves time to process payments as no need to hire staff to count cash/go to bank to deposit money
26. [1] Less need for administration as more of these tasks carried out by banks/financial providers
27. [1] Transaction tracking leading to better overview of the business' finances
28. [1] Transaction fees e.g. credit card companies charge processing fees with tight profit margins businesses can lose money on some transactions because of these fees
29. [1] Outages can happen leaving the business unbale to trade/operate
30. [1] Customer digital exclusion as some people have no other payment option besides cash, so cashless businesses cannot offer products to people without access to electronic payment methods
31. [1] Dependent on technology so vulnerable to disruption
32. [1] Privacy/fraud concerns exposing personal information to a possible data breach can result in a business being a target for hackers stealing customers data/money causing reputational damage to a business
33. [1] Challenges in remote/rural areas to provide digital payment options may affect business expansion
34. Evaluation: With the many technological and societal moves towards digital and virtual financial transactions, cash currency is becoming less and less common. It does not benefit consumers who still prefer to pay in cash or do not have a bank account. However, the shift to a fully cashless society for businesses has some potential drawbacks, and only time will tell whether cash holds a special niche.