Payment trends to watch out for in 2022

Even before the pandemic, the payments industry boasted about its innovation. Once COVID-19 and lockdowns came, technological progress went through the roof as a response to the external stressors mentioned before. Speaking solely of payments innovation, 2021 was a great year for science. Here’s what to expect from 2022 in terms of payment trends:

A surge in demand for seamless customer experience

For payments, a seamless customer experience cuts down on the obstacles that appear during the checkout process (both online and offline). In order to make a frictionless checkout process, one needs to minimise the waiting time by decreasing the number of steps required to make a purchase. A payment is frictionless if it features customer-convenient choices, such as contactless card payments, mobile payments, digital wallets, and so on.

A new trend that takes the payment industry by storm is the SoftPOS , which allows a merchant to use their phone as a regular POS system, without the need to use additional hardware or software. The customer benefits from a reduced time in making a payment and the merchant cuts down costs, in a win-win situation.

Mobile payments

Briefly mentioned before, mobile payments are the go-to payment method for everyday items by many people under 30. This method will continue to engulf the payment system, as the younger generation grows and its financial power increases as well. According to PwC , cashless transaction volume will more than double by 2030, from approximately 1 billion to about 3 billion. This will be the case across regions, as the uptake in cashless transactions is projected to increase by 2030 on all continents.?

Why does this happen? To put it bluntly, it’s easier. The consumer can pay with their phone, while the merchant can use a simple POS system (mPOS or, preferably, the SoftPOS solution mentioned above) to accept the payment. Especially in this day and age, where almost everyone wishes to distance themselves to avoid catching the disease, mobile payments will claw their way towards becoming the ecommerce champion.

Contactless payments

Powered by either radio frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) technology, contactless payments work by sharing a consumer’s bank account, app details, or contactless card with a payment reader. Contactless transactions are encrypted, meaning that the customer’s data is kept secure.

The reasons why this is a growing trend are 1) it makes the checkout experience faster and easier for the customer and 2) during the pandemic, people try to avoid as much contact as possible.

Crypto

It used to be a time when cryptocurrencies were seen as futuristic, hard to understand, and inaccessible. Recently though, the crypto market has welcomed more and more people, becoming an increasingly used payment method. As opposed to more traditional payment methods, crypto relies on a ‘push’ payment style, making sure that the funds inside a consumer’s account stay there, without the possibility of being charged back. According to Nuvei , the increase in ‘friendly fraud’ will make crypto transactions more attractive as they are resistant to this type of fraud.

The bottom line

Digital transactions are ever-evolving and merchants and consumers stand to benefit the most. In 2022, we see the path leading to frictionless customer experience, fuelled by tech innovation. For example, Paymob’s SoftPOS solution features contactless technology, cutting down on checkout time and maintenance cost, while improving the consumer experience as well.