Digital Payment Trends for Your Business in 2021
Payment innovation emerges from the intersection of two groups of drivers: technological innovation and new consumer experiences. Thus, NFC (near field communication) technology allows the exchange of data between devices and the development of contactless payments, and the development of the blockchain not only serves as the basis for the emergence of cryptocurrencies but allows making payments with traditional currencies faster, safer, and more affordable, as well as reducing the number of intermediaries in payments.
Expanding the power and functionality of mobile devices creates a practical working "point of contact" between users and these technologies, and mobile applications become the language of their communication. At the same time, mobile devices are not just a passive tool - they collect data about the user. Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies determine the user's habits and offer them personalized products and recommendations in real-time.
All this meets the new requirements that consumers are placing on products and services. These expectations include quick and straightforward procedures with a minimum amount of action, personalized services and products tailored to the specific needs and habits of the consumer, as well as personal assistants and recommendation systems to help a person optimize their behavior.
Apart from how we feel about digital payments, futuristic trends can be seen along the way, whether we like it or not - we just have to embrace them and use their perks, as they really have a lot to offer. The choice of purchase method and payment method is something that all firms must consider in the future. The way both medium-sized businesses and monetary institutions change and adapt to the market's needs will determine the future of the world.
Finally, what are the digital payment trends?
- The mobile commerce marketplace (mCommerce) is expanding every day. With almost 90 million new users every year, the mobile commerce market is considered the main hocus-pocus of most companies. Business sites are most often optimized for mobile devices - otherwise, they have every chance of being penalized by Google. A user skill is often modelled so that it serves the user of a mobile device and not a user of a desktop computer in any other way. Only ten years ago, this did not happen.
- What is more, with the entry of new technologies into the equation, the nuance of security increases. This is in part due to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). AI and ML can be pretty helpful in detecting scams, automating processes and increasing reliability thanks to their ability to parse powerful data sizes. The development of small biometric scanners, artificial intelligence scanning technology, and other similar concepts allows users to be the only ones who have complete control over the transaction. But high-spirited configurations do not end there.
- Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are overcoming massive obstacles and forever replacing the methods of selling, purchasing, or paying for products and offers. All these trends firmly ask for fast and comfortable payment decisions. They meet the needs of buyers worldwide, enabling them to make purchases online, send, receive and photograph funds in a short time. Responsiveness to emerging market trends is always coupled with significant merit in cheap development. Digital payments are no exception.
The main features of digital payment systems for businesses are:
- Invites both the average, for example, and the industrial end-user the same access for getting used to the software for transactions by their needs;
- Adjusting the necessities does not affect the flow of money;
- Allows for real-time interaction;
- In most cases contains a cheap and unpretentious interface for all users.
For example, when firms give access to the cardholder's funds at a particular point in time, the value of security and comfort will affect the quality of the transaction. A role in this upcoming payment system positively affects history, allowing both parties to learn the original skill.
Today we are surrounded by many very different "smart" devices. Often, such devices can be used, among other things, to make payments. Moreover, making payments with them often becomes more convenient for the buyer than payments using cards and phones.
There are many examples of smart devices. These are smartwatches, watch straps, fitness trackers, keyrings, rings and other jewellery, smart clothes and more. Since they are constantly on the client, they are also called wearable devices (Wearables). Over the next few years, the trend towards the use of wearable devices for payments will intensify. These can be “smart” bracelets, rings. They will be able to download payment applications of different systems and banks. Wearable devices, possessing a microcontroller, provide a high level of security of operations performed with their use, equivalent to the security level of a chip card. This fact, along with the ease of use of wearable devices, will help to increase the popularity of this payment method.
There is another crucial advantage of wearables - new possibilities for managing their content. The emergence and distribution of new microcontrollers with higher performance and more memory compared to the security elements used in conventional bank cards and means of tokenization of payment systems allow you to get a completely new user experience. Thus, the owner of a wearable device can load the payment application into it, initialize and personalize it. And this happens in a matter of seconds, not minutes, as was the case with conventional "card" security elements. As a result, one such wearable device may contain cards of the user of different payment systems and banks and applications of various service providers (transport applications, loyalty applications, etc.)
Fashion brands already include high-tech accessories in their collections, and the massive use of such devices is seen as a matter of the near future. Today, the most popular gadgets that are lightweight and easy to pay for, such as inexpensive fitness bracelets with NFC (near field communication) function, may become one of the most popular payment wearables.
Along with wearables our lives are bursting with devices belonging to the Internet of Things class. These are devices with Internet access, such as household appliances (refrigerators, utility sensors), smart cars, and city devices (paying for parking, refuelling, and more). IoT payments are sometimes referred to as an invisible payment.
Let’s dig deeper to bring more success to your business. Digital payments - digital banking. You have to create a strategy first:
- The discovery period urges you to study your motivated audience and identify which product suits the market. You can still qualify meaningful touchpoints with customers and research your competitors to see how they solve the same problems. In case you skip the study period and jump right into product development, you can run the risk of executing blunders that do not have every chance of being corrected later.
- In the beginning, you can choose a neobank model with an absolute stack, or a model aimed only at the front-end. Neobanks with an absolute stack usually have their own CBS and work with a banking license. This allows them to steer everything from outside to inside and control the entire chain of price creation. Neobanks aimed at the front-end are hoping for more large partner banks to create CBS. They are focused on the very technical side of the matter while the partner bank processes the money transactions. The digital bank of the perfect cycle allows you to cultivate a whole customer journey and offer a wide range of services, while the interface model limits the size somewhat.
- A customer-centric mindset is essential for digitalizing organizations. For banks, it works in 3 parts; for you, you need to be careful and pragmatic, apply creative alignment and innovation, and completely rethink the role of your branches. The challenge must be to anticipate customer expectations and to apply technology in advance to create conclusions.
- Digital technology urges you to be in good shape and adapt every day to the changes in the environment around you. Make sure that every strategy you develop has room for innovation that transforms operations without disrupting old processes.
- When all of your systems are digital, the flow of customer data will overgrow. You can use this data to conduct all kinds of analyzes and obtain information about your customers. This data still has every chance to help make your segmentation models more effective and give personal suggestions to any buyer.
Going digital simultaneously will lead you to a myriad of security challenges, inefficiencies in processes, and a waste of time and money.
This change will be uncomfortable, but you will all face the same data. It is necessary to find methods to slowly but adamantly adapt to the given. If you go all-in from day one, you will lose entirely. Instead of this, to speed up the process, you will spend a lot of development time; for example, there will be no schedule and an accurate roadmap that defines goals at any turn.
This situation worsens when you have a team head or a group of traders to whom you must obey. There will be a tremendous amount of pressure on their side, and you can barely show any results, at least not in a short-term opportunity.
Payment technologies of the future will only develop. With all the likely future trends in payments, implementing the right user-centric business solution that best suits all purposes is considered a challenge.
Trust, transparency and collaboration between customers and businesses are considered essential in identifying these probabilities and being informed and well equipped to overcome these challenging obstacles. Knowledge in data science, mobile and web development, and creating a comfortable user interface can have decisive meaning.
