How consumers pay for merchandise is changing. Right now, the financial industry is witnessing a shift in how consumers buy their goods, which devices they use, and where they choose digital wallets over plastic. This boom in technology has left merchants and financial institutions rushing to catch up with updated protocols and security measures, however banks and other critical key players in this conversation have been notoriously slow to adapt to consumer trends in the past, and may have already affected the security of thousands of consumer accounts due to a rash of large scale data breaches in the U.S. These breaches have accelerated the conversations between bank officials, credit card issuers, and merchants about unified technological responses to beef up the protection of consumer financial information, as the giant wave of alternative payment methods washes across the globe.
yStats, a German firm, predicts that more than half of B2C online transactions will be completed with alternative payment methods by 2017. The fastest types, the firm believes, will be digital wallets and mobile payments. yStats also predicts that bitcoin will not die out, as some have suggested, but instead will increase particularly in the United States. Alternative payments will not just grow in the U.S. The report also predicts that the alternative payment will make up 20% of the total payments made in Europe.
As alternative payment methods grow, high risk merchants should adjust to consumer trends. Now is the time to add digital wallets, bitcoin, and mobile payments to the list of payment types you accept, or risk losing more customers to the competition. Offering these alternatives will be convenient for consumers, make them feel secure about their transactions, and increase your revenue stream. In order to reap the benefits of these new types of transactions, high risk merchants must use a credible third-party alternative payment processing company that is experienced in high risk account management.
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