Each year is marked by new technologies, updates, and features that contribute to constant evolution across industries and markets. As technology advances, user preferences become more sophisticated, demanding sustained innovation to meet essential aspects customers consider crucial.
Regarding trends that shape user preferences in the payments ecosystem, there are several aspects to consider related to convenience, efficiency, diversity of options, security, impacting how people pay.
Some of the key payment trends for 2024 include:
Digital payments becoming more digital
In 2023, the rise in digital payments was significant, helping businesses foster a better shopping experience. This trend continues to rise in 2024, with a growing preference for contactless payments worldwide. With over 1 billion global users, the use of methods like wallets is expected to surpass $10 trillion by 2025, increasing by more than $4.5 trillion in just five years. The smart industry describes how payment providers leverage new era technologies on a large scale. This includes adopting technologies used by processors like PayRetailers, such as tokenization for data security and artificial intelligence for increased productivity. Additionally, it is expected that besides cards, account-to-account (A2A) payments will gain traction, and the buy now, pay later (BNPL) trend will increase as viable alternatives to other payment forms.
Real-time payments through open banking
Real-time money flows through instant account-to-account (A2A) payments enabled by open banking are increasing worldwide. This has been predominantly seen in Europe, where about half of all global open banking users reside, but it has begun gaining popularity in Latin America. Countries like Brazil and Mexico, with their growing open banking ecosystems, are leading this trend with major methods like PIX and SPEI. In the future, the key differentiator between different payment methods will be speed. With merchants and customers benefiting from more accessible, secure, and instant open banking-based payments, optimizations will lean in that direction. This payment processing trend is a significant area of opportunity in markets like LatAm, where instant payment offerings are low. That’s why having a partner like PayRetailers that offers real-time payment methods is crucial to facing this new era of payments in the best way.
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Growing Cybersecurity Imperative
Cybercrime is on the rise in various sectors as digital transformation expands the attack surface in companies. In the payments realm, near-field communication technology has introduced new cyber risks in digital transactions. Cybercriminals actively seek vulnerabilities in digital payment technology to steal credit card details and other sensitive customer information. Consider that an astonishing 71% of surveyed companies reported experiencing payment fraud in 2021. In an environment of growing cybercrime, securing digital payments is imperative for companies in 2024 and beyond, both to protect customer data and maintain their trust and loyalty. Payment processing solutions with robust security features, including advanced encryption technologies, tokenization, and machine learning algorithms designed to detect unusual credit card transactions, can help prevent data breaches and fraud. Along the same lines, another trend that can be observed strongly and will continue to become increasingly popular is biometric payments using double authentication or security via fingerprint or facial recognition.
The power of personalized experiences
In the last two decades, the standard of personalization in the consumer experience has risen. Consumers expect companies to offer a high level of personalization in their interactions. In fact, recent studies revealed that 76% of consumers get frustrated when companies do not personalize interactions. Payment processing solutions providing robust data and analytics are helping merchants understand consumer behavior, enabling them to offer personalized deals, recommendations, and payment options that consumers expect. This data-driven approach can enhance the customer journey and, in turn, provide tangible benefits to merchants. This can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 50%, increase revenue, and improve the return on investment in marketing efforts.
You might also want to read: Customer experience vs. customer service: what you need to know
Seeking a Premium customer experience
Putting the customer at the center religiously is the premise. Faced with this, the importance of new payment instruments, such as alternative payment methods, offering an unprecedented customer experience, is crucial. The growing acceptance of these methods, like the willingness to use new non-traditional methods, is an invitation to explore these options to optimize revenue while customers experience a smooth, secure process with minimal errors, entering an ideal scenario where they receive exactly what they need and want to pay. It is essential for companies to adapt and evolve to meet changing economic conditions. As our world becomes more demanding, customers continue to seek simpler solutions to minimize their daily stresses, including frictionless shopping. That’s why implementing an integrated payment solution is more important than ever.
The payment landscape in 2024 reveals a rich panorama of innovation and transformation. As industries and markets undergo a cross-cutting change, user preferences become more sophisticated, demanding sustained innovation that meets their essential needs. That’s why implementing a payment solution like PayRetailers, which advocates constant innovation and connects users with the way they want to pay, is crucial.
Curious to delve deeper into the future of payments? Stay tuned as we unravel more insights, trends, and cutting-edge solutions. And if you want to know how to stay at the forefront of the industry across Latin America, enter here and start now.
