Going Digital First: The Future of Payments
This is the fourth edition of Going Digital First. You might also enjoy:
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Transformation has accelerated across industries in light of the coronavirus pandemic — but it wasn’t exactly moving at a snail’s pace in the years prior. At least not in the financial services sector, where neobanking has given the traditional high-street giants a run for their proverbial money.
In April’s edition of Going Digital First, we take a closer look at the payments industry, the challenges it faces, and some of the solutions it’s currently undertaking to overcome them. And, some of the plans in the pipeline. So, without further ado, let’s explore the future of payments…
What is digital first?
Simply put, to go digital first means approaching any new opportunity or strategy with the assumption that the solution should be as digital as possible. In essence, this is very simple: imagine as much of the service you’re creating as possible being used by customers in digital form.
That answers the questions surrounding the term digital first, but what does that mean for the future of payments?
A run for their money
Neobanks are taking on legacy high-street giants and giving them a run for their proverbial, and literal, money. This push by innovative and disruptive new challengers isn’t restricted to banking but is being felt across industries. Being linked to the banking sector, under the financial services umbrella, payments as an industry is also undergoing enormous change and seeing rapid transformation.
Online sales continues to grow at a rate of around 76% year on year, digital-first payments are no longer optional. And, it isn’t just the Monzos, Wises, and Revoluts of the world making headway — players from outside the traditional banking sector have been innovating and mastering the kind of functionality that digitally native customers crave. Unless high-street banks and payment providers incorporate these capabilities they face losing ground to innovative fintechs and the big tech giants.
Five predictions about the future of payments
- Will all payments one day be mobile? Covid’s need to reduce contact has seen limits increase on debit cards, but could our plastic become obsolete if the same features are replicated on mobile?
- Mobile-first self-checkouts. Can you imagine going shopping without needing to queue to pay? Well, imagine a shop without a fixed, physical location. Instead, an app on your phone to pay wherever you want in the store.
- A cashless society? In some countries (we’re looking at you, Sweden), cash was falling out of fashion long before the pandemic. But, will that become normalised across Europe and beyond in this decade?
Read the full article at: https://thescalers.com/going-digital-first-the-future-of-payments/
