DIGITAL PAYMENT TRENDS BUSINESSES SHOULD KEEP FOLLOWING IN 2022
The fintech sector is facing steady growth. The average UK consumer uses at least 2.8 fintech services for their online transactions. For the most part, this is because British consumers find fintech services convenient, stress-free, and time-efficient. Fintech also continues to roll out newer technologies that further the convenience of such services–like faster digital payment processes and peer-to-peer transactions.
As these technologies facilitate a better-quality customer experience, it is only wise that businesses keep track of them to stay competitive. Here are some of the digital payment trends that you should follow in 2022:
Contactless payments
As the name suggests, contactless payments do away with monetary bills and coins. Instead, it utilises smartphones to pay for purchases. In fact, the mobile card readers that usually facilitate contactless payments are now safer and provide more useful features for businesses and customers alike. Mobile card readers can be connected via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. They can also be made compatible with digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, all while accepting transactions from major credit and debit cards. Card readers are also protected by security programs that comply with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard or PCI-DSS. The best providers also offer standard security maintenance and assessment.
Merchant logistics
Contactless payment technology also directly benefits businesses, especially when it comes to operations and logistics. Embedded payments, for instance, help businesses and e-commerce platforms make shopping more convenient for customers. This option contains the whole transaction process on the e-commerce platform. The customer stays on the app and is only prompted to authenticate the digital wallet they will use to pay. Compared to former processes wherein a user needs to open or visit a bank or third-party payment platform, embedded payments lessen steps in the customer journey, which in turn encourages sales.
Digital wallets
As previously mentioned, digital wallets are mainly used to store a monetary balance that can be spent for contactless transactions. Projections foresee that 420 billion payments will be made through digital payments instead of traditional transactions (cash and card). With more users expected to utilise digital wallets, providers are expanding its use with more features. Mobile wallets Square, Skrill, and Paypal, for example, allow Bitcoin trading, QR code purchases, loyalty programs as well as financial management–investments and savings. Businesses can take advantage of these user-friendly developments by marketing their brand or product with loyalty points, discounts, or even coupons available to users of a certain e-wallet.
Buy Now Pay Later
This old concept’s growth is mainly driven by the surge in shopping sales in recent years: statistics from 2022 alone reflect 59.9 million e-commerce users in the UK. Shoppers would want to save money for future emergencies and still get to shop for limited-stock items or go on hauls for special events. BNPL allows them to afford just that without worrying about financial security by staggering their payments into interest-free instalments. It’s thus no wonder that in the UK, BNPL shoppers make up 17 million of the British population. For your business, adopting BNPL can motivate more customers to indulge in bigger purchases. To implement this payment model, you can take inspiration from companies like Klarna, Clearpay and Laybuy. These businesses are known to enforce reputable, interest-free BNPL policies.
While adopting these trends may come with risks and challenges, digital payment technologies undeniably afford convenience and seamless processes for both customers and businesses. It becomes imperative, moving forward, that businesses consider payment technology advancements as key factors of their company’s growth.
