The years 2020 and 2021 were synonymous with digital transformation. As a result of the health crisis, retailers have had to step up their efforts to offer more digital services in response to increased customer demand. More instantaneous, faster and less frictional, consumers have become accustomed to digital during confinements, and now expect to find these advantages both offline and online.
Payment has not been spared. Demand for digital payments is also rising sharply. Consumers expect greater freedom in the payment solutions offered by their merchants. To meet this need, new trends in digital payment solutions have emerged. Digitizing payments is no longer an option, but a real necessity.
Open Banking: opening up to new payment solutions
Consumers are looking for greater autonomy, fluidity and speed across all purchasing channels. As payment is an essential element in the customer experience and customer loyalty, a number of payment solutions have been developed: bankcards, electronic wallets, contactless payments. To meet consumers’ new needs, new payment methods and methods are also booming such as payment links. But if many innovations in terms of payment solutions are seeing the light of day, it’s thanks in particular to open banking, which came into being with PSD2 (the Payment Services Directive), whose common aim is to provide a framework for new payment players and stimulate competition and innovation in the sector.
Open banking is the secure sharing of banking data. Based on the same principle as open innovation, it enables banks to share their data with other players in the financial sector, such as fintechs (location, banking services, customer data). Of course, data sharing is subject to the customer’s prior agreement (signature, etc.). This opening-up of bank information systems and data sharing enables the development of new payment services such as QR codes, which are already very popular with consumers.
This ability to innovate has also enabled the development of payment solutions such as : payments via mobile application, interactive payments or payment facilities such as ” buy now pay later ” or fractional payments.
Payment facilities
buy now pay later ” allows consumers to defer payment for their purchases. Mainly used in e-commerce, customers order products and, once they’ve received their order, send back anything they don’t like. They won’t be charged for their purchases until a certain period has elapsed, or until the unwanted products have been returned. This payment facility also makes it possible to defer salary payments. Consumers gain in freedom, and as a retailer, you boost your sales.
Split payments allow you to pay for your purchases in instalments. As an alternative to traditional credit, it simplifies the shopping experience and increases the conversation rate and average basket size. All the customer needs is a credit card and a merchant offering this type of payment solution, or a mobile application allowing it.
Payments via mobile applications
The use of smartphones has now become part of consumer habits, and this has given rise to numerous mobile applications dedicated to payment : Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Paylib, Lyf Pay, etc. These applications represent a continuation of the contactless payment system democratized since the health crisis. These applications allow you to pay merchants easily and freely, without needing to carry your bank card, or even to reimburse a loved one instantly, without having to register an IBAN.
Interactive payments
By interactive payment, we mean everything that includes ” conversational commerce “, even more innovative than mobile applications or payment facilities. It is only used for online businesses. It allows customers to be accompanied in their purchases by a chatbot. It’s a ” virtual agent” available 24/7, who accompanies the customer through the entire process, right up to the payment stage.
The place of fintechs
Online and offline retailers benefit from new creative solutions to improve the payment experience and make it a real asset in increasing conversion and loyalty rates.
To develop these new payment solutions and meet consumers’ needs, numerous fintechs have positioned themselves in this field, offering ever more innovative, efficient and fast payment methods.
As a fintech and e-money institution, this is one of CentralPay’s main missions: to offer you ever more innovative payment solutions.
