Top five payment trends for 2020

Change in the payments space is happening at a rapid pace.

New technologies and innovations are being introduced faster than ever before, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.

There is now more diversification in the way we pay and receive goods and services and with it, more opportunities for Australian businesses to expand and grow.

A common thread uniting all the upcoming payment trends for 2020 and beyond is the emphasis on customer experience. Read our article to learn more about the five top payments trends of 2020 that will help you grow your business and stand out from your competition.

• Online payment technologies

eCommerce is booming in Australia. The value of the eCommerce market in 2019 was $46.7 bn, and is projected to grow to 66.2bn by 2023. Businesses that have traditionally been conducted in a solely physical location are adopting eCommerce and online payment technologies to meet the ever-growing consumer demand for convenience.

Payments are becoming much more than simply transactions and transfers. With the introduction of technologies like wearable smart devices that allow instant payments, and the rise of subscription payment models, the cohesive customer experience is being prioritised.

An important question to ask is: “How can I blend my physical and digital payment channels seamlessly to offer the optimal customer user experience?”

• The shields are out: fraud and security crack down

Past attitudes amongst business owners towards online fraud have ranged from disinterest to disbelief that they could be at risk of fraudulent activity. However the topic of online fraud can’t be ignored by Australian businesses any longer.

Australian businesses saw an increase of 18% in security breaches from 2017 to 2018 and a staggering 330% increase in human-driven account takeover attacks in 2019.

Australian payment companies are implementing 3D Secure 2.0 (3DS2), Secure Remote Commerce (SRC), and Network Tokenisation. Understanding what these technologies and innovations can mean for your business can be complex and hard to follow. Not to mention, the pressure to safeguard your customer data is only growing.

• Software partnership surge

In 2020, there will be a shift in the way consumers view payments. It will no longer be enough for businesses to offer consumers a basic payments solution. Businesses are now needing to prioritise the customer experience as their main means of growing and retaining their customer base.

The missing link to unite businesses and consumers is the software payments partnership. Tailored software integrations to fit your business can transform basic transactions into a seamless end-to-end user journey.

Software integrations can help you manage all aspects of your business, from accounting to reporting, customer relation management, invoicing, push and SMS notifications, marketing campaigns, branding, tracking client details and interactions, all the way through to payments.

Working with an integrated software payment partnership will ultimately be the key to establishing and retaining long-term relationships with consumers.

• Cash crash

2020 was tipped to be the year that Australia would be a cashless society. Whilst that’s definitely not the case, cash use will continue to decline in the years ahead.

According to GlobalData, Australia has one of the highest frequencies of payment card use in Asia Pacific, with an average of 13.7 monthly card transactions. For reference, the second highest country is New Zealand with 8.2 monthly transactions, followed by South Korea with 7.1 monthly transactions.

With Australian consumers now being offered more payment choices than ever before, there has been a noticeable decline in cash use. Businesses need to make sure they are offering customers multiple options of payment to suit their needs, or risk customers finding more flexible competitors.

• Personalisation

While each of the previous trends touched on how they will ultimately serve the shift to a customer-centric focus, this final trend looks at why personalisation in the payment solutions you offer is your best chance to elevate your potential and growth.

When we talk about personalisation in the payments context, it’s about using the right tools for the job at hand.

There are many different ways to collect and set up payments in your business, but that doesn’t mean they’re all suited to how you operate and what your customers need.

Working out the solutions that will work for both you and your customers’ specific needs can be done easily when you partner with a one-stop payments solution. Drawing out insights and areas of opportunity is one of the reasons Ross O’Halloran from Right Look Property Maintenance finds Ezidebit the best payments solution for his business.

What’s next...

Payment technology is developing at an unprecedented pace, bringing with it new opportunities and challenges. Keeping on top of changes and trends that could impact your business can be an overwhelming task. The expectations of the modern customer is changing rapidly and the onus to meet those expectations is on the business owner, otherwise they risk losing their customers to more agile competitors.

See our free guide, 'The Way We Pay Has Changed: Has Your Business Adapted' here.