The convenience provided by digital payments has furthered the prevalence of mobile payment trends throughout a plethora of industries. Following the pandemic, consumers were introduced to many viable alternative payment methods that completely colored their opinion on what came before. So much so that even after the pandemic as the world returned to in-person shopping, most consumers still wanted to stick to the convenient habits they had built for themselves. This newfound prevalence has cemented mobile payments as a hot trend in payments moving forward, including many developments and features set to arrive in 2023.
Digital Wallets
The big selling point of mobile payments, mobile wallet services like Google Wallet, Apple Pay, etc. Many consumers now utilize these mobile wallet services, so not offering these options can deter many new customers.
Biometric Authentication
Most smartphone users utilize biometric authentication, traditionally facial recognition to authorize operations on their phone, including payments. The secure nature of biometrics sets it up as a very likely trend in mobile payments looking forward to 2023.
Online and Offline Payment Mixing
Despite a good chunk of the world returning to physical in-person shopping, consumers have become attached to the frictionless online payment methods introduced in the pandemic. There will always be a chunk of the population dedicated to what came before in offline payments, but many consumers are going to adapt to these more convenient options.
Besides digital wallets, customers are also utilizing in-app payments, renewing memberships, one-click purchases, and other new online payment offerings.
Buy Now, Pay Later
The pandemic limited consumers’ disposable or even usable income as the world came to a stop. This motivated the spread of BNPL (buy, now pay later) services, which provide customers the freedom to pay off purchases over monthly installments. This service’s popularity and viability make it a mutually lucrative trend. Essentially providing consumers the opportunity to purchase expensive products, and businesses a dedicated path for customer conversion.
Online Tip Jars
Innovations in digital payments paved the path to providing businesses, usually independent entrepreneurs, accessible online tip jars. Specifically social media influencers or content creators, who can now receive direct tips from their audience through the creator’s preferred app, or even sometimes directly through their social media platform. Apps like TikTok and Twitch offer tipping features to creators once they reach certain criteria, while other apps like Twitter provide the feature for no charge. Dedicated tip jar apps like Kofi are also popular, offering a multitude of additional features to help facilitate other parts of your operations; even offering a prebuilt eCommerce shop setup.
The “Super” Payment App
The world has comfortably adapted to the versatility of smartphones, most menial tasks from securing dinner reservations to paying off a bill, even tracking your heart rate have been relegated to your phone. This continued cultivation is in service of the seemingly endless race that most businesses have found themselves in, the race for the super app. A sort of one-stop shop for all of your potential needs from purchasing items to processing your payments, similar to the Chinese app WeChat.
The rise of mobile and digital payments over these past few years will only accelerate this trend moving into 2023. The best way to stay ahead of this potential consolidation is to ensure your business offers essential mobile payment options like Square, Venmo, Apple pay, etc.
New Expectations
The convivence and accommodations these trends provide naturally attracts consumers, and their popularity will only skyrocket as more people discover these potential benefits. This increase in popularity will draw in a diverse volume of potential customers, whether it’s people on the fence or those just getting started in their online mobile payments journey.
To prepare for these 2023 trends, take stock of those you already cater to, and those that you don’t. And work backward until you’ve sufficiently evaluated and integrated whichever of these trends will best serve you moving forward.