×

Posted on

5 Emerging Trends In The Mobile Payments Space

Category: Growth Hacks

5 Emerging Trends In The Mobile Payments Space
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Internet was introduced just two decades ago and smartphones ushered just a decade ago marking a new revolution. Smartphones have already become the centre stage of our life today.

People not only communicate using their phones but do so many other things including many of their daily tasks. From shopping to social communication, and from bill payments to online learning, mobile phones have become an indispensable tool in our life.

As a matter of fact, mobile payments were not considered a viable option for financial transactions not very long ago because of the security issues involved. But with advanced technology and secure platforms, mobile payments have become a norm. According to a study, in 2016, 47% people used mobile phones for payment processing in the US.

In a way, innovations in mobile phone technologies have just begun. More and more new trends are expected to emerge in future that our forthcoming generations will use and they might completely eradicate the use of paper money and traditional payment methods.

Among the major trends emerging at present in mobile payments are:

  1. Mobile wallets

Mobile wallets first appeared in the global arena when the Apple Pay app was developed by mobile phone maker Apple. It was soon followed by a flood of such mobile wallet platforms and the prominent ones among those were Microsoft Wallet, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

It is expected that mobile payment apps would cross a total volume of $500 billion in terms of transactions by 2020. It has seen a whopping 80% compound annual growth rate for the past couple of years. Consumers are also accepting it wholeheartedly. Smartphones are the key for the development of this form of payment technology. With greater mobile phone penetration, this figure is likely to go up.

  1. User experience is king 

User experience is everything when it comes to payment processing through mobile platforms. More and more companies are now targeting audiences by offering a smoother and better user experience in terms of navigation, site layout, load time, and processing.

User experience can be defined on the basis of the following three points:

A. Time saving
People also use their smartphones to save their time while performing a routine task. All they have to do is to take it out from their pocket and start using it for many of their daily tasks. A secure app they can trust for payment processing can save their time and energy. But, the website should be designed in such a way that users can perform their tasks in minimum clicks working on an easy interface.

B. Look, feel, and speed

The look, feel, and speed of a mobile site are extremely important when it comes to payment processing. It helps when the interface is clutter-free and offers a smooth user-experience. More and more customers are prompted to make payment through such sites and apps.

C. Load time
Load time is also an important part of user experience. Make sure that the entire navigation is smooth and fluid. Avoid such stuff on the web page that takes a long time to load.

  1. Advancement technology to ensure security

More and more security options are being introduced, thanks to advancement in technology. MasterCard recently experimented with selfies in place of passwords and biometric authentication is also just around the corner. The other technologies that are expected to be prevalent in near future are voice recognition, cardiac rhythm and facial identification. Since technology is always in the process of advancement, the sky is the limit for such ongoing innovations and possibilities.

  1. mPOS adoption

Mobile Point of Sale is also becoming extremely popular with merchants all around the globe. It offers safety and ease of use. As far as mobile payments are concerned, there are certain other benefits that come with them. It is expected that more than 50 million mPOS devices will be installed by 2019, according to ABI Research.  This is roughly 50% of the POS machines already installed at present. Though mPOS will not completely take over POS, but both are likely to coexist for the convenience of users.

  1. AI to handle routine transactions

Artificial intelligence has introduced many innovative solutions related to mobile payment processing. One of the most common AI application used is “chatbots”.  These chatbots are designed to meet the needs of people making mobile payments. Financial chatbots are designed to transfer funds and print basic financial snapshots on receiving simple voice commands.  Verbal instructions can also be handled by AI. It also helps routing number verification and completing ACH payment processing without having to interact with a call centre agent.

Final thoughts
With mobile payment technologies growing further, more and more consumers are likely to make payment using their mobile phones. With biometric and facial recognition, AI and Internet of Things, mobile payments will likely speed up despite challenges.

6 years ago
Expand Your eCommerce Business by Offering Newer Payment Options
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Expand Your eCommerce Business by Offering Newer Payment Options

The e-commerce landscape is changing drastically. According to the latest trends, when it comes to the entire shopping experience, customers are looking for flexibility and convenience. With regard to that, the payment function online is very troublesome. Most of the customers will cancel their purchases if their favorite payment option is not available.

According to a survey by YouGov, more than 40% of the participants said that they feel more comfortable if the web store they have chosen offers multiple gateways and different modes of payment. E-Commerce sites are offering more and more payment options. With digital wallets and contactless & mobile payment options, people are looking for credit card alternatives.

In order to maintain a higher conversion rate, you need to be aware of the growing demand of customers for better alternatives and inclusion of popular methods of payments. Because of the diversity of demographics and the choices available, people have developed biases against particular modes of payment – and it can either be a credit card or a particular digital wallet.

Here are a few necessary things to take care of when offering payment options:

Make it convenient, simple and easy
Convenience is the key when it comes to choosing the mode of payment. Many people abandon the effort when they reach the Shopping Cart because an e-commerce web-store doesn’t provide them with the required payment options. Customers get impatient and demand better service and ease of use. So, if you provide additional modes of payment, you make the life of your customer easy.

Bring in a touch of professionalism
If you take customer psychology into consideration, you will find that that web stores that provide multiple modes of payment look more professional, reliable and worthy of endorsement.

Capture an international audience
With lots of choices available, you will do better to have an eye on international customers who have to use different modes of payment according to their personal and local preferences. Forget about countries, sometimes even different regions in a country have different preferences.

Create loyal customers
customer frustration is not just about preferred modes of payment. Transaction failures are also responsible for customers looking for alternatives. Sometimes, they get frustrated when they choose a particular mode of payment and the transaction fails repeatedly. Even customer support is not able to address these issues immediately and the entire experience may result into customer leaving your site and going to your competition.

According to the research firm, Bain and Company, if you increase the rate of customer retention by 5%, you are definitely heading towards increasing your profits by more than 95%. So, give your customers a wide range of options, so that in case of transaction failure, you can still divert them to another mode of payment and save their purchase.

Choose the right option between Integrated and hosted gateways
Again, there are two types of payment gateways:

  1. Integrated gateways
    With integrated gateways, the customer performs the entire checkout process on your website without being redirected to the third-party website. It offers them the smoothest experience, but it can be less secure. In this case, the responsibility of maintaining security lies on you as the service provider. Make sure that you are PCI compliant, so that the payment process taking place on your website is safe and secure.
  2. Hosted gateway
    When you redirect a customer to a hosted gateway, they are being directed to a third-party website which takes care of the customer’s transaction. In this case, customer experience might suffer. It is not as smooth as the first option, but in this case, you need not worry about the security issues as the responsibility of maintaining security lies with the third-party website. If you are a startup and have a low budget, you can go for this option, because to ensure security you need to invest heavily.

 
Therefore, payment gateways play an important role in customer retention and customer experience. Make sure that you provide enough payment options to your customers, so that they love the entire experience on your site and, especially when they are making their payment. It will ensure less customer loss or abandonment at the shopping cart and increased customer loyalty.

6 years ago
These 10 things will help protect your Ecommerce Business against fraud
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

These 10 things will help protect your Ecommerce Business against fraud

The good news is that e-commerce is flourishing like never before. The volume of ecommerce transactions worldwide is growing by leaps and bounds every year. In fact, according to reports by Statista and emarketer., the total volume of global e-commerce is expected to cross the $3.03 trillion mark by 2019.

The not-so-good news is that along with market expansion, the incidents of online frauds have also increased. And as the world moves ahead, fraud has become more sophisticated. According to the Global Fraud Index, which tracks and analyses changes in fraud patterns by studying the transactions of more than 5,000 e-commerce merchants in North America, Asia and Europe, $3.3 billion was lost by merchants as a result of account takeover frauds in the second quarter of 2017.

Online frauds usually result in fraudulent transactions, account take overs, stolen goods, and unauthorized requests for refund. To cover your e-commerce business against fraud attack, let’s understand what we can do.

Here are 10 ways to reduce eCommerce fraud activities:

  1. Begin with your website security

Make sure that your website is not vulnerable. You should hire security experts to ward off such kind of possibilities. Make sure that your website is integrated with a secure payment processor.

  1. Train your staff

It is high time that your internal staff should be aware of the patterns of behavior usually observed during a fraudulent activity and also the security measures associated with it. They should also be trained to quickly spot an unusual activity.

  1. Use security codes

To ensure the physical possession of the credit card by the user, make the use of CVV mandatory. CVV is the code which is printed on the back of the credit card.

  1. Don’t allow customers to buy in guest mode

E-Commerce websites allow you to buy on guest mode, which means that you are not required to set up an account with the website and you can just provide the billing and payment details and make a purchase. While setting up an account on the website, you are required to provide more information about yourself and that minimizes the frauds.

  1. Contact the customer if required

If you suspect any fraudulent activity, immediately contact the customer on the contact number provided by them and make sure that you are talking to the actual customer.

  1. Use tracking numbers

You should track the order delivery and record every detail associated with it.

  1. Compare email address with IP address of the user

You can use free verification services to make sure the customer is ordering from the same location with which they are registered with you. Remember, during most of the frauds, users initiate a purchase from far-off places and sometimes even different countries.

  1. Compare shipping and billing addresses

It is also a form of preliminary check and you can use address verification services to ensure that these two addresses are not dramatically different. However, there can be exceptions to that – it usually happens when a person wants to gift something to one of his/her friends or relatives. However, you can always contact the customer when required and confirm the order as a security measure.

  1. Take signatures on delivery

It is for those customers who frequently return and dispute the transactions. Such customers claim that they never received the product and ask for a chargeback. To prevent such frauds make sure the delivery boys get their signature on delivery.

  1. Use a fraud protection service

The staff at a fraud protection service is specially trained to detect fraudulent activities during millions of transactions. They use human intelligence along with machine learning techniques to help you identify a possible fraud. When you hire any such service, you can minimize fraudulent activities on your website.

Frauds happen everywhere and they make a dent in your profits and sales revenue. The above steps will definitely help you prevent those frauds and run your business smoothly.

6 years ago
9 Things to Look For In a Payment Gateway
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

9 Things to Look For In a Payment Gateway

If you are setting up an e-commerce store, one of the most important things you will be looking for is a payment partner who is going to help you enable the whole payments process.

With the right payment partner, your customers will be able to pay you easily and is more likely to come back to your website. There is just one small problem – how do you choose the right payment gateway?

With the market cluttered with several payment gateway options, it might be hard to choose the right one. In order to choose the right processor, you should do some homework and consider some points that are relevant to your business needs.

So in this article, we are going to explain 9 important things to be considered before you choose your payment partner.

  1. Look into location and incorporation details

Most of the times, the ideal payment gateway for you should be the gateway that is from the same location/country, your business is incorporated in. The corollary is also true.  For example, if you want a European payment gateway for your business, you need to incorporate in Europe itself.

  1. What’s the pricing and the providers’ fees?

It is extremely important to know the fee structure of your payment processor, if your business model is extremely price sensitive. Most of the fintech companies fall into this group and a slight variation in prices can alter their profits and may even turn it into loss.  Don’t get carried away by the advertisements that announce lowest fees or discounts, as it just might act as a catch to attract clients. Find a payment gateway provider that offers transparent fee structure without any surprises afterwards.

  1. What’s the technology

The bottom line is that you should choose a payment gateway that is supported by robust technology. This should not only offer simple, user-friendly solutions but also protect all financial transactions against fraud.  Also, your payment gateway should be secure enough to protect all your customer’s data and also have lower processing costs.

  1. How good is the support

Operating in a global market involves many unexpected and occasional incidents that can be bad for your business. That’s why support is considered to be a crucial factor to instantly fix the problems you face. Support should be simple and hassle free and ticketing system should be robust and fast.

  1. Does the operator offer international payments?

Check whether your payment gateway accepts international payments. If you are a growing business which is looking for selling to the global customer in the future, you might want to go with payment gateway which accept international currencies and offers alternative payment options. While local payment providers might be cheaper in certain cases, global payment gateways like PayTabs come with extremely attractive features like multi-currency payments, acceptance of a variety of cards, settlements and alternative payment arrangements. The latter is probably the better option if you are looking for revenue from around the world.

  1. What are the safety and security features

It is extremely important to ensure the safety and security of your customers, while they purchase online.  Maximum frauds happen while your customers try to make payments online.  There are different ways of protection that a processor can implement such as 3D secure payments, verified by Visa, and token system etc. Your gateway should always follow the guidelines of PCI to minimize the chances of frauds.

  1. Regular payments

If your business model requires short-term payments and settlements, it is ideal to go for a processor that doesn’t expect you to wait too long. Check the cost of the transfer and make sure that the fees are not too high. Always check what your payment gateway is charging for wire transfer. Some gateways charge a low fee and some might ask you to pay a higher fee.

Make sure that the rolling reserves are kept to a minimum. Rolling reserves is a kind of money that a payment processor or a bank can keep with themselves for a period of three to six months as security money against possible charge-backs.

  1. Does it allow invoicing

It might make sense to go with a payment gateway which offers built-in invoicing services. This not only makes it easier for you to raise instant invoices for the customer but also eliminates the need to move to another platform for invoicing.

  1. Reporting features

Another important thing to check is whether your payment partner is offering detailed reporting services. Once your business starts, you will want to review the transactions, review chargebacks in any, or do an analysis of any extra charges that you might have incurred while using the gateway. Try to go with a gateway that offers a better user experience.

There might not be a “perfect payment gateway” that fits the needs of every business. But its worth going the extra mile in order to find your right payment partner since a bad choice will not only cost you money but also your customers. The one thing to probably always keep in mind is the security aspect. The right partner will help you provide all the necessary tools for helping your business grow.

6 years ago
Forging the Future of Payments – The Emerging Trends
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Forging the Future of Payments – The Emerging Trends

With the rapid pace at which the payment industry is gathering momentum, the global payment environment will go through a sea change in near future. There are many factors responsible for an ongoing shift in the payment industry.

We are going to discuss these trends in the light of the 5 major factors that are as follows:

  1. Increasing regulations and compliance post global recession of 2009
  2. Entry of new players in the market and increasing competition
  3. Economic growth in emerging markets and a resultant boom in payment flow across new regions
  4. Innovation and unprecedented growth in technology

Technological innovation is paving the way for increased accessibility, efficiency, velocity and reach, as far as payment transfers are concerned. It is responsible for a complete shift as to where, when and how payments are initiated and transferred.

Banks need to be cautious and monitor the situation carefully as to how developments are taking place in the payment industry and what opportunities and threats it is posing for the banks. In order to thrive, they need to be alert and ready to capitalize on the emerging possibilities.

  1. The impact of regulation

Increasing regulations is the biggest factor that is going to impact this industry in future. With an unprecedented growth in the volumes of cross-border payment transactions, the volume of these transfers has doubled from US$10 billion in 2012 to US$18billion in 2018.  Such a huge volume of international transactions warrants strict monitoring and control.

Banks need to keep an eye on the complexities involved with local and international regulatory framework. The other influencing factors are current practices, currencies and payment formats.

Changes in regulatory compliance can lead to enormous innovation, where it becomes necessary to reevaluate both internal and pan-industry practices.  It will open a whole new world of opportunities for banks and corporate sector.

To simplify and harmonize payment practices across Europe, EU has introduced the Single European Payments Area (SEPA). Fixing regulatory and compliance issues, SEPA has harmonized and standardized the payment market and eased local transfers. Such integration activities are likely to take place in other regions as well.

  1. Entry of new players

Many new players are likely to enter the payment industry and those can be online payments providers, virtual marketplaces and large technology and social media companies such as Google, WhatsApp, Amazon, and Apple, etc.  A thriving fin-tech ecosystem will boost the market.

The factors that are responsible for attracting new players in this market are the current secure payment propositions. The industry as a whole is gravitating towards new payment methods that are not constrained by banking regulations and offer convenient and innovative methods to the customers.

  1. Economic growth in emerging markets

Shifting economic landscape and changing global demographics across the planet will also shape how future payment flows will take place.

A soaring middle-class population and changing economic landscape is creating global opportunities in this industry. In the year 2000, the US and Western Europe together controlled 70% of global financial assets, but by 2020, it is estimated to fall to 45%. China, on the other hand, is flexing its economic muscles and it has seen a 600% growth in global financial assets since then.

  1. Rapid growth in technology

With the rapid pace of change in financial technology, many regions such as Latin America have experienced unprecedented growth in smartphone penetration. Nearly half of the adult population in this region doesn’t have a bank account. So, there is huge potential for payment processors and mobile banking.  Technology allows you to not only transfer the funds instantly but also to track it in real time.

Payment processors like PayTabs have a real advantage here because they have future-proof strategies in place that include customer-centric approach, convenience, flexibility and multi-currency support.

6 years ago