Throw your credit cards away! The smartphone is your next payment method [5 Reading Tips]

Quelle: Denis Prikhodov - Fotolia.de — Quelle: Denis Prikhodov – Fotolia.de

It is exciting times for quick and easy payment methods. Google, Paypal, Apple, and Samsung are recently moving forward in their race to increase the reach of their online and mobile payment solutions. The new payment methods aim to boost conversation rates at the checkout point by enhancing the customer paying experience on every device, especially on smartphone. Where is the new batch of payment methods heading?

Taking into account that 46.1 % of cart abandonments occur at the payment stage, Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Paypal, and also Amazon Payments are expanding their services as much as they can and are rolling out new functionalities to turn this % around with the objective of bringing mobile conversation rates to match desktop rates.

In a digital world where contactless transactions are increasingly taking roots, the ways of completing purchases are now more about using express checkouts and multiple devices, making in-app payments and authorising them with fingerprints. That’s what this new batch of mobile online payments comes up with.

The path to follow is clear: to deliver compelling and secure ways to pay and get paid in an omnichannel reality, where purchases might happen under any circumstances (even if the smartphone is turned off). And so is the recipe: to speed up the checkout processes, to improve the user experience with simple and intuitive forms, and to prioritise security.

Go where it might be needed

An extra ingredient that might add a distinctive taste to the success formula is to go where the consumers actually are by conquering their online micro moments.

Unsurprisingly, Paypal will be integrated with Facebook Messenger by the end of this year only for US users. With this move, Paypal will become one of the payment options available when customers use a bot service and decide to make a purchase through this channel and reach a wider target.

Similarly, the Alibaba-affiliated mobile wallet Alipay disembarks in USA to provide its 450 million active users with seamless shopping experiences during their holidays in USA. The move ultimately seeks to gain customer loyalty and boost transactions overseas.

Banks are moving up a gear

There are also banks that refuse to leave behind and are digitalising their services to compete with FinTechs. In Spain, one of the last steps taken by banks is called Bizum. 27 banks are united to deliver a mobile payment platform through which Spanish users can make micropayments (0, 50 to 500€) even without knowing the bank account number of the recipient. The operating procedure is similar to sending a message via Whatsapp.

Once users have linked their accounts with their phone number, they can start to make payments or get paid even when they have an account in different banks. 18 banks are currently offering this service and 6 more will be doing so shortly.

As it can be observed, payments are evolving rapidly to meet the expectations of the digital life. The new generation of payment methods put the smartphone at the centre of their activities and further developments are led to overcome the reluctance of many users to use this means to perform an activity that is essential for trade but critical for shoppers. It still remains to be seen whether these initiatives end up hooking up shoppers. Stay tuned!