[3-minute read]
Continued from Part One
Part one of this series looked at platforms, super-apps, the growth of online payments, online marketplaces and the gig economy. Let’s explore some more trends to watch out for in 2022.
6. Wallets
Traditionally we carried currency in wallets. Today it takes on various forms, from digital to crypto to stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). According to Forbes, digital money is now capturing a growing share of total transactions with cash falling from a 40% share a decade ago to a 26% share today. This trend will continue in 2022. Watch out for universal and contextual wallets entering this space.
A Universal wallet is a single wallet that works everywhere. It typically uses biometric identifiers like fingerprints or face recognition and supports cryptocurrency, verifiable credentials, and cards.
Contextual wallets allow people to have separate wallets for different functions. A wallet for your car to fill up your gas. A wallet for your fridge that pays for food and drinks. You get the picture.
7. Embedded
Enter invisible banking where users can make contextual, contactless payments through connected devices. Cars, homes and wearable technology serve as embedded wallets where a new level of convenience and speed make payments almost invisible. Embedded payments in cars are particularly well contested. Various players in the market are vying for four-wheel wallets with loyalty and rewards programmes attached, creating sticky in-car experiences. Wearables have passed the novelty phase to become one of the key channels for contactless payments. As merchant and consumer acceptance rise, opportunities for issuers will increase to compete in the wearable payments space.
8. BNPL
Millennials and Generation Z have kicked BNPL (Buy now pay later) into one of the top trends for 2022. It has grown rapidly across the world with Amazon and Walmart listing it as one of their payment options in 2021. Authorities are concerned about various aspects of BNPL and the UK Government has instituted new laws that will govern BNPL in 2022. Concerns include consumer credit health, credit checks and overlending. Lexology published a blog post discussing all the aspects and concerns as well as legislation in their blog post. Most of the analysts agree that BNPL is here to stay, grow and evolve in 2022.
9. Real-time payments
When we said the future is now in the first part of our analysis of payment trends for 2022, it couldn’t be more apt than it is for real-time payments. Gig workers, influencers, creators and companies all demand to be paid instantly. 15-minute grocery delivery has become a reality in some places. Instant commerce is the new ecommerce. We can expect to see daily or hourly payroll develop rapidly and even mortgage, as well as tax payments could shift to daily or weekly cycles. Person-to-person, business-to-consumer and even business-to-business payments will all be affected by this trend.
10. Cross border payments
According to Payhawk, the Bank of England predicts total global cross border payments will reach US$250 trillion by 2027. The rise in this trend is mainly due to an increase in global ecommerce, investment and trade. Global systems handling this form of payments are clunky and built on obsolete systems. We expect to see a world of development from central banks in this sector followed by an explosion of efficiency and usage during 2022. It is worth mentioning digital remittances as part of real-time payments. As global mobility increases so does the need to transfer funds back to the country of origin. According to Statista, this sector is set to grow by 8.40% to £113,645m by 2025. It will be interesting to see how Brexit and the pandemic affect this sector now that the world is slowly opening up again.
The world as we knew it before the pandemic will never exist again. There has been a global shift to doing business, working and transacting online. The future of digital transformation and payment evolution looks bright in 2022.
If your ecommerce or retail business wants to get on the evolution train, have a look at Truevo. Few fintech companies are iterating as fast as we do.
