4 digital payment trends for 2021

^{By: BPC Banking Technologies.}

• Retailers went digital, now they must diversify their payment offerings.
• Payments with QR Code will grow.
• Voice activated payments will pick up momentum.
• Contactless payments: COVID-19 will be the great catalyst to digitize the transportation payments infrastructure around the world.

BPC Banking Technologies , a company that offers smart digital solutions and works with banking institutions and neobanks, presented its projections for the digital payments market for 2021.

“It cannot be denied that COVID-19 presented the greatest challenge for cash transactions. The industry has never before seen such a drastic change in payment options with the replacement of cash payments to digital media. Mobile and contactless payments were the protagonists of last year, offering solutions that go beyond the hygiene issue linked to the use of cash ”, comments Santiago Egas, senior vice president and general manager of BPC Banking Technologies.

• Read: Less cash and more electronic payments, the financial changes that the pandemic brought

The adoption of new means of payment allowed people and businesses around the world to access the digital economy. But we are only at the beginning of what will be the reinvention of payment experiences.

^{Image: Unsplash.}

According to BPC Banking Technologies, these will be the four trends that will define the way payments will be made in 2021:

1. Retailers went digital, now they must diversify their payment offerings

Merchants responded very well to the pandemic by moving to e-commerce, but the work is just beginning. Diversification of payment methods will be the crucial step in 2021. As consumers continue to embrace e-commerce, often interacting with merchants they have not purchased from before, we will see growing demand for new digital payment methods. capable of meeting the safety and security concerns of customers.

“The ability to pay on delivery, 'tokenization', biometric fingerprint cards, phone-to-phone payments, along with a variety of more traditional card payment options, will help create a landscape where the consumer can take decisions based on convenience, personal preferences and knowing that you are protected against financial fraud, ”explains Egas.

2. Payments with QR Code will grow

In the quest for truly contactless payments during the pandemic, these methods will continue to prove their flexibility, especially in emerging markets, primarily because they are easy to use and inexpensive to implement. For next year, this type of payment is expected to be even easier to use, thanks to integrations with digital wallets.

“Today's QR code payment solutions require an application that only allows it to be used in one establishment. In developed markets, leveraging popular digital wallets already on consumer smartphones, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay, make them more accessible. Customers will no longer need to download separate applications, but will be able to use their favorite wallet to make a purchase, "says Meyer Saavedra, sales manager and Latin America solutions consultant at BPC Banking Technologies.

3. Voice-activated payments will gain momentum

Although Artificial Intelligence has had important advances in other aspects of life; its application in the world of payments is only beginning to be seen. Voice-activated payments could be used to confirm transactions in other apps, such as food delivery providers. We are seeing how some merchants have integrated purchasing models that are activated by voice.

“Chatbots with speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversion are the functions that have become more accessible to the industry so far, and they will be protagonists of the transformation in the way we make payments within applications. Digital banking applications that offer this function allow their clients to give instructions on transactions and initiate invoice payments using only their voice, ”explains Meyer Saavedra.

4. Contactless payments: COVID-19 will be the great catalyst to digitize the transportation payment infrastructure around the world

COVID-19 has been the catalyst for governments around the world to adopt digital services. This is becoming particularly visible in transportation, where we are beginning to see that individual ticket sales systems with a fragmented approach are already digitizing elements of the infrastructure and being replaced by end-to-end services.

“Its implementation will be seen mainly in the smaller cities of developed countries, as well as in emerging markets, where the use of cash is massive. The benefits of paying with a simple touch will go far beyond maintaining social distancing, as we hope to see a greater willingness of citizens to use cashless payment methods in other settings, ”concludes Santiago Egas.

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