Invisible payments to take the stage as the new commerce norm

Payvision released a new ebook exploring the future of commerce payments. The research looks into how the next generation of payments is reinventing the shopping experience, giving merchants clear insight into key strategic retail trends.

The future of payments is instant and invisible, triggered by the needs and demands of today’s modern consumers: millennials and Gen Z. By 2020, the spending power of both consumer groups is projected to reach $1.4 trillion and $44 billion respectively. This means that future payments experience will be largely driven by their behaviour. These consumers expect digital shopping experiences that are as natural as possible – unconscious, even. Furthermore, in their quest for the best products and services, consumers want a seamless, integrated shopping experience, regardless of touchpoint. For them, the barriers between channels will blur so heavily as to become essentially nonexistent, proving that the payments transformation demands a clear need for omnichannel services.

Consumer behaviour, regulatory developments such as PSD2 and modern infrastructure are converging to enhance innovation and growth in the payments ecosystem. As a result, mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and WeChat Pay are growing in popularity. The day will soon come where you’ll no longer need to pull out a debit or credit card. In fact, we estimate that 56% of all e-commerce transactions will be paid through mobile wallets by 2023

Future Payment Technology

The technologies used to deliver frictionless invisible payment experiences include tokenization, sensor fusion, cameras, machine learning and data analytics. “Tokenization is a must-have for all e-commerce businesses as well as any offline merchant that wants to offer a seamless checkout experience,” explains Ankur Sharma, Omnichannel Product Manager at Payvision. “Not only does it safeguard sensitive cardholder data. We have also seen evidence in the ecosystem that tokenization can effortlessly raise conversion by up to 6%.”

Invisible payments are already happening through recurring billing, queueless checkouts and cashier-less checkout. By 2023, invisible payment technologies will power $28 billion in transactions.