Mobile wallet technology has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. With the latest trends in the market, it is evident that the smartphones are turning out to be another sort of payment method by replacing the traditional old wallets. With enhanced security and seamless transactions, mobile payment services such as Google Pay and Apple Pay have become successful in a short span of time. Let’s check out the key trends that will govern the technology in the coming years.
Better loyalty programs
In the future, the number of loyalty programs will increase. Many mobile wallets now offer extra services such as hotel stays and car rentals along with airline tickets. As an example, redBus offers extra discounts on hotel booking when a bus is booked through the app. This trend is evident as more and more consumers are opting for loyalty programs to collect discounts in coffee shops or airlines. The app-based loyalty system will allow the consumers to collect the loyalty points so that they can exchange it for a service.
Estimates state that Starbucks Pay will have more users in the coming four years than Apple Pay. The reason is that they have included a loyalty program with every purchase from the Starbucks store.
This has been taken up by many other organizations like Target and Walmart who have leveraged their loyalty programs to make the purchases at the store convenient and less time-consuming.
Inventive new services
One technology that is steadily gaining popularity is the mobile remote deposit capture. With this technology, customers are able to deposit checks by sending a photo of the check electronically to the bank.
Mobile wallets will be able to include this option in the coming years if the technology becomes popular and hassle-free among the consumers.
Consolidation of the Mobile wallet market
As the technology is still in its nascent stage, the mobile wallet technology has seen a lot of fragmentation and competition. This has made the technology hard to reach everyone’s hands.
With large acquisitions in the mobile wallet space, it is expected that the large players in this sector such as Apple Pay and Google Pay will emerge and eliminate the rest of the competition.
Besides that, the mobile wallet technology is expected to reach more users in the coming years. This is true as the number of people holding a smartphone out of 10 people has reached to four and this trend will continue to grow as more people start using smartphones.
With the smartphone technology, more and more users will be able to get hold of the mobile wallet technology which wouldn’t have been possible if they did not have a smartphone.
More services
Nowadays, more and more mobile wallet service providers are offering more features besides the main principle of managing and storing money.
In the future, the mobile wallets may also offer collateral services such as microcredit, hyperlocal transactions and cash pickups.
Moreover, in the coming years, mobile wallet providers will include statistics and extra features through which customers will be able to track conversion rates and prices of products in real time. They will be able to receive automated recommendations on where and when to invest with the help of built-in charts and graphics.
More transactions through mobile wallets
The mobile wallet technology has been largely popular among consumers due to its advanced security measures and user privacy. But no technology is totally immune from cyber attacks.
In the coming years, the mobile wallet service providers will strive their best to reduce the chances of a security breach by adding extra physical layers (tow factor authentication and extra pin codes).
The Mobile wallet service providers will have to look forward to the WWW consortium’s efforts on browser-based payments which are touted to become one of the key technologies in the coming years.The Payment request API will enhance security as well as accept e-commerce payments efficiently.
