Last year, businesses made a significant shift to embrace an omnichannel commerce strategy to arrive at customers anyplace. In 2023, businesses should invest in refining their digital experiences to live up to their customers’ assumptions at each point in their journey, beginning with payments.
After two years of shifting habits to working and shopping largely online, consumers are presently more comfortable navigating the world through a digital lens.
As a matter of fact, over a portion of consumers consider themselves more digital than any time in recent memory, with 39% shopping from a smartphone day to day or week after week and 23% saying that they shop online day-to-day.
Indeed, even as the world anticipates a post-pandemic future, the habits created throughout recent years are setting down deep roots. In response, businesses must invest in a digital-first shopping experience that is seamless, efficient, convenient, and personalized.
In addition, these experiences should be empowered across the whole customer journey, from pre-purchase through post-purchase.
Digital Customer Experiences.
Businesses are expanding their payment options to meet customer preferences for digital payments, both contactless in-store, and flexible choices online.
In 2021, 38% of merchants reported expanding their digital payment options. This momentum is poised to grow at an accelerated rate in 2022 when 53% of merchants hope to acknowledge more digital payment options over the course of the year.
Individuals need to have a frictionless commerce experience exactly when they need to transact. What’s more, that is not just at the point-of-sale; it’s across the whole experience.
Digital payment methods can come in many forms, and continuous innovation makes this space one to watch. How about we take a gander at the three types merchants say they intend to focus on most this year.
Digital Wallets
A digital wallet is a virtual version of your regular wallet. It stores a user’s various payment types credit cards, debit cards, bank account information, loyalty cards, and more on an app or browser that can be accessed easily and rapidly online or in-store to make a payment.
Businesses can acknowledge digital wallets online and in-person through a wide variety of point-of-sale solutions.
An estimated 4.4 billion global consumers will shop with a digital wallet by 2023, accounting for 52% of eCommerce payments globally.
1.6 billion global consumers will pay by digital wallets at the point of sale (POS) in 2023, accounting for 30% of POS payments.
With the increased acknowledgment of digital transactions, combined with consumer preference, there’s going to be a speed increase in [digital wallet] usage, much more than there as of now has been.
QR-Code Payments
QR codes continue to grow as a popular, safe, and easy payment method.
While QR-code adoption rates change by country-for instance, 70% usage rate in China and just an 8% usage rate nearby in Japan, the market is projected to grow significantly across all countries throughout the following couple of years. By 2025, QR-code payment users are expected to surpass 2.2 billion, equating to 29% of all mobile phone users globally.
All through the buyer’s journey, businesses are using QR codes in innovative ways to drive extra sales and further develop the customer experience.
For instance, social media influencers who use video and streaming platforms to demonstrate products are displaying QR codes so viewers can purchase the item with a tick. Brands are incorporating QR codes into their non-digital marketing materials, such as print ads and TV commercials, so consumers can easily make a purchase.
Likewise, restaurants are using QR codes to empower diners to see a menu, submit a request, and pay for their feast without waiting for a server. Finally, retailers are using QR codes on labels to give discounts, encouraging consumers to make a purchase.
Pay By Link And Digital Invoicing
Pay by link allows businesses to create instant custom links to send to customers to initiate payments online. Customers can then pay using their preferred payment method.
These links make it easy to use any channel, including text messaging, email, social media, and messaging platforms, to acknowledge online payments.
While similar to pay by link, business-to-business (B2B) payments traditionally use digital invoicing, an invoice that can be seen and paid digitally. The two options work on the speed and productivity of payments as well as automate manual processes and assist with improving the cash stream.
The two forms of digital payments are on the rise; one pay by link supplier reports seeing 6x growth in transactions from 2020 to 2021,10 while digital invoicing is projected to grow at a build yearly rate of 20.4% from 2019 to 2027.
It’s basic to take a gander at the master plan in terms of where payments fit into your customer experience. Businesses must see payments as a method for attracting and retaining more customers, a serious differentiator.
Businesses like furnishings and electronics retailers have long offered customers installment payment plans for significant purchases. Today, paying for purchases with custom-fitted, flexible purchases presently, pay later plans for even small ticket items is poised to become one of the fastest-growing payment trends in 2022.
Buy Now, Pay Later
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is simple: it allows the customer to purchase an item and sometimes pay it off in installments over the long run.
Historically, financing with fixed installment payments was accessible for high-end purchases. Be that as it may, significant retailers have as of late introduced BNPL as a payment method with the same adaptability for any purchase, regardless of how small. Furthermore, the pattern toward BNPL is expected to continue.
BNPL is the payment method perfectly positioned with flawless timing.
The new surge in BNPL transactions can be attributed to several factors, including rising shipper adoption, its omnichannel application, adaptability, and faithful youth consumers.
Omnichannel
One reason for the growth of BNPL as a payment method is its accessibility online. Previously, installment payments were principally a standalone payment plan offered in-store at the point of sale.
It’s at this point not in one channel; it is really across the whole commerce ecosystem.
BNPL payments online are on the rise, expected to account for generally 24% of all global eCommerce transactions by 2026, up from just 9% in 2021.
A Requirement For Businesses Of All Sizes
Integrating all points of commerce lets businesses create more personalized customer experiences across the worth chain at scale from marketing to item selection to payments and shipping.
For enterprises, connected commerce allows them to get significant insights from information across various technology platforms and markets to sell all the more actually and efficiently.
An enterprise must adjust a nuanced approach to meeting nearby requirements and one-of-a-kind customer needs with the benefit of delivering a consistent experience across markets.
