How to Deliver on Customer Experience in a Digital Payments Era
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Posted by Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly to Retail Payments, Payments and Industry Trends
Share this:
Don’t Break the Bank – Building for the New Payments Ecosystem.
The foundations of payments systems are scalability, availability, and reliability. Without these, we cannot layer additional functionality onto the core services. This is crucial in the New Payments Ecosystem, where the customer expects seamless, fast, and effective payments integrated into the buying experience, not to mention the ability to make a payment anytime, anywhere—that it “just happens”, securely. The customer sees the value in the overall experience; how quick and easy is it to buy those sunglasses, pay that bill, or tap into the train? And in a rapidly diversifying payments ecosystem, the latest question is; how easy is it for me to manage all my payments?
The Internet of Paying Things
Developments such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and PSD2’s request to pay mean that managing ongoing authorisations for Payment Service Providers or ‘things’ to action payments on your behalf is fast becoming reality for the consumer. This expansion of the initiation of a payment is now a significant driver for payments players to deliver an enhanced end-user payment experience. 87% of global retail banks cite reducing payment friction as “the most important product-level priority,” with an even higher percentage of banks in Asia (90%) focusing in on this strategy.
It’s not just about enabling those new payment or messaging types; it’s about preparing for the inevitable digital payments explosion. In an IoT era, there will be more payment-enabled devices, and more of those devices will be making micro payments. These two factors combined will serve to boost non-cash payment volumes even further. Payments providers need to be able to scale to the Internet of Paying Things.
Customer Experience Without Compromise
But how can we achieve an end-user payment experience worthy of the New Payments Ecosystem without breaking the proverbial bank at its foundations? A large part of the answer lies in augmenting existing infrastructure; investing and preparing your business for the new fast, open ecosystem without compromising on those foundations, or security. Banks say improving infrastructures (93%), and security (88%) are key drivers behind their additional payments investment. It’s critical to understand that scalability, availability and reliability, and security underpin every new payments experience. As the industry looks to develop new services to delight customers, it cannot disappoint on the basics.
Don’t break the Bank, Don’t Break the Payments Chain!
To learn more about #SleepAtNightability watch our new video now featured on our new payments ecosystem webpage.
Related blog posts
The Challenge and Reward of Consolidating Payment Platforms
The majority of retailers operating internationally have multiple payment platforms, designed to suit the local markets in which they operate, and these platforms often differ between sales channels according to research carried out by ACI Worldwide and Retail Week. This reflects not only different consumer expectations and payment preferences, but also the cost of upgrading and consolidating multiple payment systems. The emergence of new payment options, combined with pressure to be compliant with the latest payment standards, only adds to the complexity.
Contactless Turns Ten: The Shift to Contactless Universal Payments is Now Well Established
In September 2007, Barclaycard first introduced contactless payments to the UK. Ten years on, and many Brits would no longer want to live without a contactless card in their wallet. In fact, six out of ten Brits now pay with "touch and go," and according to the UK Cards Association 108 million contactless cards are in circulation in the UK, with volumes of transactions currently reaching £400 million per month.
Vanilla Payments Don't Always Cut the Mustard
Five years ago, there was a clear trend among major brick-and-mortar retailers to bring in their own payments software. Except for very small retailers that used bank-owned stand-alone POS terminals, retailers wanted to own and operate their own systems – usually licensed products from a small number of specialist payments software vendors. This approach gave retailers flexibility, control and cost savings through centralization. Other than the bank-owned terminal approach, there were few viable alternatives.
How Connected Consumer Lifestyles Will Drive Forward Mobile Payments
Merchants are striving to respond to the ever-changing behaviors and expectations of consumers by creating seamless purchasing experiences that engage customers and keep them returning for more. In turn, payment service providers (PSPs) and technology vendors are endeavoring to meet the needs of those merchants by providing appropriate supporting technology and services.
Amazon & Whole Foods: A Game-Changer for Customer Experience
The estimated $700-billion-dollar grocery business recently got a jolt when Amazon announced its intended purchase of Whole Foods Market. With more than 450 stores in the U.S. and UK, Amazon will be plunging head first into the physical world of commerce.
Stop Fraud… Or Increase Conversion Rates? With a Fine-Tuned Fraud Engine, Merchants Can Do Both
Preventing fraud and driving high conversion rates are universally important objectives for merchants – but many struggle to adequately balance these two demands. They either employ aggressive fraud prevention strategies to minimize fraud losses, or conversely, reduce checks in order to prevent false positives, improve customer experience and ensure sales targets are met. Neither exclusive approach works in the long run; focusing on only one will prove costly on multiple fronts.
ETA TRANSACT: Time To Break Out… And Cross Borders To Reach New Customers
It’s before lunch on day one of ETA Transact17 in Las Vegas; exhibitors are still putting the finishing touches on their stands in the main hall, so it’s the perfect opportunity to sit in on some of the breakout sessions, part of the educational program put on by the Electronic Transactions Association. And ‘breakout session’ seems particularly apt in this case, as panelists from ACI Worldwide, Planet Payment, and arvato launch into a discussion on how merchants and payment providers can ‘break out’ of their domestic markets and take advantage of the huge opportunity in cross-border eCommerce.
Why Omnichannel Shoppers Are Worth It
Today’s consumers are tech savvy and highly connected, demanding convenience, speed and choice across channels, payment methods and fulfilment options. And, with a growing proportion of shoppers readily switching between online, mobile and physical touchpoints at various points in the purchasing journey, merchants are now dealing with a constantly evolving and unpredictable retail landscape. This requires fresh strategies and technologies that allow them to adapt to the expectations of omni-channel customers.
Are Millennials’ Shopping Behaviors Today, Everyone’s Shopping Behaviors Tomorrow?
Much has been made of the impact that the so-called ‘Millennial generation’ (aka Generation Y) will have – or is already having – on the way financial services are developed and delivered. And plenty of (digital) column space has been dedicated to discussing how the first digital native generation is transforming commerce – and payments – with different expectations, preferences, and shopping behaviors than their older cohorts.
The Middle East Presents Retailers A Growing Opportunity But Faces Two Challenges
36% of Middle East residents are digital shoppers1 and are expected to spend $19B2 online in 2017; with this spend figure rapidly growing to $34B in 2021. Although cash is the preferred method of transacting, the region is edging toward a digital society. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, nearly two thirds of the population has smartphones—fueling shopping online growth.3 This prevents retailers new growth opportunities.