With more and more people opting to go cashless, mobile payment and online money transfer apps are becoming a popular solution. The rise of this payment method after the establishment of PayPal in 1998, has given a unique boost to the e-commerce service as well. Nonetheless, the benefits for physical stores are equally essential as online payment systems are set to reduce waiting time, faster checkout, and create higher customer satisfaction. Moreover, these payment gateways provide marketing opportunities to brands as well as offer incentives such as gift cards, loyalty programs, discount coupons, user benefits, and cash back for using the gateway or apps.
By means of mobile payment gateways, a business can target market products to a specific demography based on their spending habits gathered from the mobile. As customer experience becomes a vital aspect to achieve success, organizations are focusing on improving the user interface of mobile contents and websites. This will enable the brands to monetize their contents at different touch points, making payment easier.
As cashless and contactless payment becomes the norm of the economy, the mobile payment app users are given the opportunity to personalize their buying habits with one-click purchases, as made available by ApplePay. Additionally, companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook have ventured into the mobile payment landscape with GooglePay, Amazon Pay, and mobile peer-to-peer payment through the Facebook Messenger. With endorsement from technological giants, mobile payment is becoming one of the most widely used technologies among consumers in urban areas.
Mobile payments have become more convenient with merchants and consumers alike, as these apps do not necessarily need the banking details of the person who is receiving the money. Users just have to link their own account with a phone number or email id on the app. The users can share the phone number or email with the receiver or the payer and have the transaction conducted in a simple step. This also effectively eliminates the intervention and the necessity of bank branching as all the help required with a transaction can be gathered remotely through chatbots or customer service. In reality, with the transaction being simplified, consumer spending will increase in the coming year and provide more opportunities for business to thrive.
