Five Important Trends In Mobile Payments

Mobile payment processing is essential to today’s businesses. It’s easy to collect money from people through their smartphones. You can collect money from people who link their credit cards or other items like the contactless card readers, to a mobile app or another system. Solutions like Google Pay, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and Apple Pay are among the top mobile payment processing solutions you can utilize

But there’s more to the mobile payment industry than what you might expect. There are many trends that merchant services will have to utilize if they are going to manage mobile payments.

Biometrics Are Critical

Mobile payments will have to work with biometrics systems. It’s easy for people to steal information on other accounts and use them in various places. That’s where biometrics will come in handy.

Biometrics is a practice where a person will require some physical presence to initiate a mobile payment. Biometric authentication can entail many processes, including:

• Fingerprint scanning
• Facial recognition
• Voice activation
• Eyeball recognition

Biometric support will be critical for mobile payments. Using such controls can add a layer of protection to whatever transactions take place.

Smart Speaker Support

Smart speakers have become increasingly popular as of late. Amazon Echo and Alexa, Google Nest, and Apple HomePod are among the top smart speakers in today’s market. You can use one of these speakers to get information on various things or to manage different actions in your home.

A smart speaker can manage mobile payments. This can work as a user gives a voice command to a specific speaker registered in one’s name. The speaker can record information on a person’s account and how one will pay for things.

The more important detail is that the speaker can record a customer’s specific voice. The design ensures a person with the proper voice will complete the transaction. The setup makes mobile payments more useful.

No Signatures Necessary

One of the more frustrating things people have to deal with when buying products is signing for them. Sometimes a signature might not read well, not to mention some customers don’t like handling pens that many others use during the same day, especially during a global pandemic. But a mobile payment processing system can work without any added signatures or unnecessary touching of potentially contaminated surfaces.

A payment system can review the customer’s trends in buying products and see which ones are suitable for running without a signature. Sometimes a signature or other form of confirmation is necessary when something out of the ordinary happens.

Invisible Payments Are Possible

Is possible for people to buy things by going into a store, picking up something, and then walking out? It is when the Internet of Things comes into play.

Internet of Things technology entails many computer devices linking together to transfer data over a network without any outside interactions. It often works with sensors or chips. The technology works like this:

1. A customer will enter a store. That person will have a card or other item to use for payment within that store.
2. The customer will pick up a product. That item will feature an RFID tag or other item that is able to keep track of it.
3. The customer then leaves the store with that item.
4. The sensors outside the store will read the product and payment method.
5. The customer receives a receipt by email or text confirming the transaction.

The effort provides a simple approach for payment that works nearly instantaneously. It also gives the customer more power over the shopping experience. The system will require plenty of hardware and programming, not to mention enough tags for all the items people could purchase. But it will be a worthwhile solution that simplifies the transaction process once the work is done upfront.

Cryptocurrency May Work

Cryptocurrency payments may also work as mobile solutions in the future. Cryptocurrencies are popular in that they can be used in many places, not to mention that they are more secure to transfer than most items.

Cryptocurrencies do not require third parties in their transactions. The point makes it easier for transactions to go, albeit with a slightly longer delay than the current standard of near instant credit card approvals. Businesses could appreciate such moves because of how simple they are.

The crypto transactions that go through will operate according to the specific currency a store can collect and the exchange rate at a time. The proper bitcoin amount or whatever else works will be transferred based on the value of the purchase.

The practice is helpful, but it only works when a store offers enough currency choices. Bitcoin is the best solution, although Litecoin or Ethereum could work in some situations. Either way, it helps to get on the crypto bandwagon when seeing what’s available for a transaction.

Mobile payments are essential for allowing a business to run well. You can use any of these trends in the mobile payment field to make your business more visible and interesting.