Change is a constant part of life, which can also be seen in business payments. This shift today among consumers is brought about by many reasons, including increased data privacy awareness, multichannel experiences, and mobile transactions. All this has prompted the development of new technologies to keep up with the changing consumer preferences on preferred payment methods when shopping.
However, payment processing is more complex nowadays because rapid technological advancement has increased business payment options, for example, a virtual corporate card. Therefore, it can be hard to keep track of all payment trends for companies. This guide seeks to ease this issue by outlining the business payment trends you must watch out for in 2022 and the coming years.
1. Increased Focus On Security, Data, And New Technologies
Safeguarding customer data has become one of the primary goals for most businesses in 2022, and this trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This emphasis on consumer data privacy is due to the heightened cybercrime in the e-commerce business environments. As a result, this has forced businesses to implement procedures, policies, and protections to ensure consumers can seamlessly and safely pay for goods or services.
Because of this, players in the financial sector have invested in new technologies that help boost the safety and security of digital transactions. This has been done in different ways, including payment modernization which helps guarantee greater protection for transactions, tokenization, authentication, fraud verification, and provisioning.
In addition, regulators such as GDPR, LGPD, and CCPA have enforced regulations that companies operating in the global market need to observe to be deemed compliant. All this is to try to better protect consumer data from falling into the hands of hackers.
Also read: What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Accepting Cryptocurrencies in Business?
2. Growing Popularity Of Crypto Payments
Although cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin and Bitcoin are known to be very volatile by most, they’ve still managed to attract around 300 million people due to their investment potential. Because of this, big companies such as Tesla, Starbucks, WeWork, Expedia, and Microsoft accept cryptocurrency when making payments. Other small businesses globally have also followed suit and started accepting crypto payments.
One advantage cryptocurrencies offer is fast processing, ease of completing international payments, and low transaction fees. All these benefits make cryptocurrencies provide an improved customer experience. It’s expected that crypto payments will continue becoming more popular because e-commerce shops, with the help of companies like Utrust, can now offer a seamless checkout experience to anyone paying using cryptocurrency.
With that said, the worldwide acceptance of crypto payments took a dent after China and Turkey outlawed paying for goods or services using cryptocurrency.
3. Contactless Technology
The first contactless card was first introduced back in 2007 by Barclays, but this payment method wasn’t quickly adopted because many people had doubts over its safety. However, the COVID-19 outbreak shifted because retailers no longer accepted cash and only accepted cards. All this was done to curb the spread of the lethal coronavirus. As a result, this forced consumers to change how they pay as cards became the only accepted payment method.
After this payment method shifted in favor of contactless technology, consumers quickly realized the convenience and ease of payment this innovation offered them. This was further boosted by the limit for contactless transactions being increased. As a result, this allowed consumers a greater opportunity to continue using contactless technology when paying for goods or services.
Another reason for the increased demand for contactless cards is that paying for transactions was much faster than inserting the chip. In addition, this method was safer, unlike swiping a card’s magnetic strip, as it provides end-to-end encryption. The contactless cards were also less prone to wear and tear. These many benefits led to banks that initially hadn’t incorporated contactless technology into the cards, making it available by default.
4. Buy-Now-Pay Later Is Becoming More Popular
Today, businesses have come up with innovative ideas to try and entice consumers to buy their products by providing a convenient and easy buy-now-pay later (BNPL) payment plan. This strategy allows buyers to spread their payments over several installments. The terms of the purchase differ from one provider to another, with some not charging any interest while others include interest.
Some businesses that have embraced this digital payment method include Laybuy, Klarna, and Clearpay. This payment plan is convenient for buying clothing and is designed to sway over clients who are undecided about making a purchase. The BNPL strategy has proven to be very lucrative to merchants during prime shopping seasons.
Also read: How to Choose the Best Payment Processor for Your Business
5. Mobile Commerce
Smartphones are today one of the most in-demand and used devices among users across the globe. Businesses have seen this opportunity, which is why mobile commerce is quickly becoming much more popular. Mobile commerce simply refers to dealings that customers carry out using their smartphones through the internet.
But for you to succeed in mobile commerce, you must ensure that your design is well optimized and mobile-responsive. This is vital as it helps boost loading speeds and consequently enhance your client’s shopping experience. If your target clients are unhappy with the load times, they’ll leave without purchasing anything from you.
6. Digital Wallets
Another business payment trend is the shift by consumers toward digital wallets, which serve as the ordinary wallet, albeit being virtual. Digital wallets can store different types of payments for users, including debit cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, and bank account details, to name a few. This technological innovation helps businesses serve both the underbanked and unbanked customers. As a result, this helps boost their market reach even further and make more sales in the process to boost their profit margins.
The use of digital wallets has also helped to streamline digital purchases and peer-to-peer purchases. In addition, this payment method is frictionless and allows retailers to collect valuable data on their client’s spending and think of how to best minimize churn. For customers, digital wallets are ideal because they reduce the effort needed when buying an item and make the entire process less time-consuming.
Takeaway
While the COVID-19 undoubtedly had a devastating impact by causing death to many people and bringing the world to an economic standstill, it did hasten the development of digital payment services. This was because it’s only through digital commerce that consumers can get anything they want. Fast-forward to 2022, this has led to the adoption of business payments trends as detailed in this guide which has become an integral part of the business world today.
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