New technologies are replacing cash payments and improving customer experiences. Paying with a cell phone is just the beginning.
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Worldwide, more than 80% of financial transactions are carried out with cash. However, the share of cashless payments and the market for digital payment systems is growing rapidly, says Susanne Steidl, Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Wirecard, addressing students at the Entrepreneurial School®. This also applies to Austria, where a particularly emotional debate is currently taking place. This development is driven by consumers themselves, for whom mobile payments with smartphones or smartwatches are proving very convenient, but also by governmental regulatory mechanisms such as the abolition of large banknotes in order to gain more control over cash flows.
This trend towards cashless payments entails a number of other developments: On the one hand, biometric technologies such as fingerprint or facial recognition are needed to identify customers securely. On the other hand, cashless shopping can be combined with other digital technologies, which together lead to an improvement in the processes for retailers and open up new sales potential. Consumers benefit from a pleasant shopping experience and better supply. Numerous examples of this can be found wherever e-commerce is combined with bricks and mortar retail. Bestsellers from the online shop can be given preferential presentation in the local shop, sales staff can access shopping baskets and online preferences of registered customers and thus provide better advice to them, autonomous "vending machines" - self-propelled kiosks with electronically controlled selection and digital payment systems supply remote locations and non-mobile customers. Other trends are virtual currencies and payment by data, i.e. a type of counter-transaction in which goods and services are paid for by providing personal data.
Many of these new possibilities require dialogue at an ethical and legal level. Trust and security play an essential role in all developments. Susanne Steidl: "Where there is money, there is also fraud." Thus, FinTech companies are required to apply the highest security standards and always be at least one step ahead of potential fraudsters. However, 100 % security is impossible.
About Wirecard:Wirecard is one of the fastest growing FinTech companies in the world with 5,300 employees. 270,000 customers are served from 26 locations around the world. CPO Susanne Steidl: “We are shaping the future of digital payment solutions by securing and further expanding our own technological leadership through early recognition of new market trends. Wirecard is not only concerned with pure payment technologies, but also with supplementary services and new developments that sustainably improve the customer experience. ”
