Shopping habits have changed more than ever in recent years, either due to consumer behavior or the need to adapt to an uncertain future and influenced by a socio-health situation that does not stop changing.
Companies, therefore, must be prepared to respond to consumers who are looking for easy, fast and personalized shopping experiences. Since sipaywe want to help businesses stay ahead of the changes by telling you about some of the trends we’ll be seeing in the coming months.
Face and voice payments
A few years ago we saw the option of unlocking the phone simply with our face as unthinkable, but today it is a common practice that users carry out in our day-to-day lives.
The rise of biometrics, which greatly facilitates the performance of numerous tasks, is also already present in payments, since Apple Pay or Google Pay allow users to authenticate themselves through facial recognition to make purchases.
Likewise, in recent months we have already been able to see how some supermarkets and businesses, especially in the United States, have begun to allow payment through facial recognition, so it is expected that this will soon be common practice in other countries.
Another of the great advances that we have witnessed lies in the great revolution of virtual assistants such as Alexa or Siri, which are sometimes already used to make transfers between people or to pay by card. According to a study by Business Insider Intelligence, 8% of American adults have already used some form of voice payment.
Therefore, sooner rather than later, consumers will frequently be using the phrases “I want to buy this product” or “I will pay with Google”. This last company has already developed a payment program hands free, which allows users to pay by saying these words. The establishment’s staff will only have to request the consumer’s initials and verify their identity by means of a photo that the latter must add to the program. In this way, the amount of the payment will be automatically debited from the customer’s account.
All this would mean progress for businesses, not only in the field of modernization, but also in that of simplicity.
Elimination of checkout
Undoubtedly, one of the most tedious aspects for users consists of the process of checkout, both in physical and online commerce. In the first, because you generally have to wait in long lines to be able to buy items, and in the second, because you have to enter a large amount of data and carry out additional verification processes that slow down the process.
In the United Kingdom, for example, there are already supermarkets that, through surveillance cameras, record all the items that consumers purchase and charge the determined amount when they leave the store. All this is possible since a previous registration of the customer’s card data has been carried out. The tokenization will play a crucial role to be able to see this initiative in the future on a regular basis.
On the other hand, and following this trend, for example, the transport company uber has started charging its customers online, allowing users to book a trip and have their bank account automatically charged at the end of the trip.
Being able to manage purchases without having to carry out a process of checkout It would be, without a doubt, the paradise of all sellers, since it would not only provide faster speed to consumers, but would greatly reduce their pain of paying.
Payments in the metaverse
Originally, the metaverse was defined as the environment to play virtually against other players or against the machine itself. What initially emerged as a virtual universe for entertainment, over the months is evolving into a parallel world made up of avatars customizable, for example, with clothing.
The great evolution of this technology has caused companies to want to be part of this project, replicating their current business models in virtual shop windows. Therefore, the metaverse has gradually become a metamarket where businesses can sell their products.
In short, there is no doubt that for the acquisition and satisfaction of these new demands, forms of payment must be developed that guarantee a secure environment and that, in a short time, will constitute the bases of the payment sector system.
Since sipaypayment service provider, we are committed to technology as the engine of innovation and we constantly evolve so that payments are a way to build a secure environment in accordance with new trends and regulations, as well as to create unique experiences according to the needs of the consumers.