Digital payments are the next frontier when we discuss the payments landscape in any part of the world. While payment gateways, wallets and crypto currencies vary in adoption and feature set across geographies, there is no denying the potential that going cashless holds. You can use digital payments to make purchases, both online and in-store.
With respect to digital payments in the UK, non-cash payment methods represented 66% of all payments in the UK in 2017, which is up from 39% as compared to the data in 2007. This shows a strong adoption pattern with more and more people looking to move past cash only options.
Digital payments hold such massive sway in economies such as ours because of their power to ease payments (contactless, cashless, virtual etc.), build transparency and trackability (budget management, expense watching etc.).
As more and more people have started relying on their smartphones, across virtually all aspects of their lives, companies have also started exploring cashless options, to keep ahead of the pack in terms of providing a best-in-breed user experience.
Digital payments are the next stage in the evolution of money and businesses here have to become more adaptive in terms of accepting payments through them.
If you’re a business looking for a future-proof payments solution, you might require some solid research and a game plan to choose which digital payment platform fits in with respect to your requirement. With several options available, it is hard to pick one which would provide you the most benefit.
What to watch:
Ease of use
While choosing the right solution, make sure that it has a simple interface to manage and operate which provides the most value for money. You don’t want something too complicated or technical which would be difficult for your teams and your customers to grasp.
It should have a quick and hassle-free setup process, is completely user-friendly, insanely secure and scratches off a reliance on bulky physical infrastructure (helps you build within your existing infrastructure without the need to rip-and-replace multiple things).
You need customers to rally around your solution because onboarding, if easy, quickly moves consumers towards adoption.
Tip:
Try looking for solutions that are specifically tailored to cater to business requirements in general. A no brainer but do opt for an option that works across web, mobile (Android and iOS)
Reasonable fee structure
Look for a feature-rich platform that isn’t asking you to pay through the nose. The platform should be free to use for your users, seamlessly connects with the users’ payment options (banks, payment service providers etc.) and should not be charging an arm or a leg anytime payments are processed. (the industry standard is a 2.5% to 3% surcharge)
Tried and tested
You should also look to onboard a solution that has been tried and tested by the market, unfortunately with respect to software solutions a lot of experimentation goes into initial builds (stress/feature testing, versioning, bug fixing etc.) so it is important to do your research and discover strengths and weaknesses that each option possesses. In this Square Cash app for business review, for example, you can evaluate the pros and cons as well as the points I mentioned above, and see if it works out for you. Tried and tested by vCita. You can also replicate its review across other options that you are evaluating, would work well with respect to your own payments journey.
Your local payments landscape
You might be an aspiring brand that is looking to build a next generation platform, powered by state-of-the-art payments. But if you are working within an economy that is moving slow to payments options like, contactless, near field etc. it might be a good option to review what the public private sector sentiment is on these matters
Pro-Tip:
Feel free to visit the Bank of England website, and pick up on key stats and researches to review what’s happening locally. If you are not that into research, feel free to check this out to give you a snapshot of what’s to come.
Conclusion
Digital payments is a tricky slope. You are trying to move people away from something they are used to towards something that is practical. Going with a good payments partner helps you reduce your time-to-adoption exponentially.
As a brand you also need to incentivize the digital payments journey, look to do partnerships with players (public, private consortiums) who are also trying to develop the digital payments landscape. If you have a solid service (Built with user- experience in mind), that incentivizes the digital payments journey and educates customers well, then you are set!
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