Nowadays, you can do pretty much anything on your smartphone or tablet, from catching digital collectible creatures to landing your next job. However, recent trends in digital wallets and other mobile payment apps, such as PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, and Square, have revolutionized how you manage and spend your money.
Mobile payment trends are growing
Approximately $620 billion in transactions were completed using mobile payment systems in 2016, and Statista reported that number could reach nearly $1.1 trillion by 2019. This suggests that mobile banking is not a trend or a fad, but an increasingly important cornerstone of how businesses and consumers accept and make payments.
While the mobile payment sector is rapidly expanding and set to boom in the coming years, the community of developers, ecommerce professionals, and marketers in this space have been working extremely hard to get to this point.
Mobile payments are quick and easy for customers.Addressing mobile payment concerns
The future certainly lies in mobile wallets, but first developers, ecommerce leaders and marketers must put those apprehensions to rest and overcome challenges. Top concerns include:
- Security and fraud.
- Retailers and businesses accepting mobile payments.
- User experience.
Moving forward, Entrepreneur explained that developers will have to focus on the security of mobile wallets as they become more ubiquitous. This desire for convenient but secure digital money is being driven in larger part by the youngest consumers. According to the Financial Brand, nearly one in four millennials rarely or never carry cash for regular expenditures, and a large portion opt for mobile payments.
Meanwhile, marketers must hone their strategies when it comes to incentivizing consumers to use these apps. They could tie rewards programs into their businesses’ mobile wallets, as well as help stores learn more about the demand for mobile payments: Around 44 percent of American shoppers told Harris Interactive that they would use their smartphones to complete in-store transactions.
Then there’s the challenge of getting customers to use your company’s mobile wallet app over another, more popular service. A survey conducted by CCG Catalyst found that 68.6 percent of millennials reporting using a mobile banking app. But, of that group, only 6.5 percent take advantage a service offered by a traditional bank. Instead, millennials opt for Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Pay Pal and others. The onus here falls on developers and ecommerce professionals. These two groups must work together to build digital wallet apps that are user-friendly, perform well and constantly updated to address concerns.
