Payments is one of the most dynamic sectors, judging by the buzz of activity we saw last year. New and more innovative ways to pay, mergers and takeovers, regulatory changes and so on.
But we can’t base all our market predictions on 2019, travel a decade down memory lane and it dawns on you that much has changed— and will continue to.
And because what the future holds very much depends on what the past looked like, here’s the truest reflection of what payments will look like in 2020 and beyond.
Speeding the shift from Cash to Digital transactions
Though PYMNTS found cash usage surging in the 60 nations it studied, this increase is only linked to the overall increasing in spending and not the preference of cash over other methods.
The status quo, right now, however is a looming massive shift from cash to digital methods fueled by the popularity of mobile devices and steadier internet connections even in remote areas.
In fact, the dream is not too far-fetched; an entire 67 percent of the globe’s population owns a smartphone.
Ditching eWallets for All-inclusive Mobile Apps
eWallets have done their fair share of the job in digitizing payments. But consumers are demanding more convenience than these wallets offer.
“More” in the sense of ease-of-use and connectedness. So the idea is to create a single app that eliminates the need to shift from platform to platform when accomplishing various payment needs.
So in the future, a user will be able to send money to a friend, pay for goods and services, do their banking, and save from one convenient platform.
On-call or Smart Commerce
We’ve moved from visiting shops, to ordering items online and now, commerce may come to our homes.
The availability of connected devices will help on-call commerce achieve more than bridge the online-offline gap and make business possible across new channels. It will make trade more efficient.
By 2025, over 25 billion devices will be connecting to the internet. And soon, transactions may be possible from within an automotive, home or office.
Many electronic devices will get smart, and be tech-savvy enough to indulge in business independently. How about a vehicle that troubleshoots automatically and connects with a repair and maintenance service?
Registering the Unbanked into the banking system
According to household surveys by the FDIC, nearly 70 percent of grown-ups all over the world have a bank or bank-like account – issued by ether a bank, Telco or Fintech.
These figures are remarkable, representing an increase from 51 percent since 2010. And moving forward we expect to see more and more of the world enter the banking system.
This will be fuelled further by improvements like the ease and convenience of opening bank accounts online, hassle-free access to banks through mobile devices among other factors.
Final Words
Many other predictions can be made about payments but these four will certainly come to pass. Consumers and business owners must prepare for a whole new world of payments.