Stephen Ferry, managing director for financial services, Capita Software
Digital payments in general, and mobile payments in particular, will increase in 2019, as cash is used less for everyday transacting.
The demise of cash
The most recent UK Payment Markets report revealed how new technology, payment innovation and changing consumer habits contributed to 13.2 billion card payments at the end of 2017 overtaking cash payments (13.1 billion) for the first time.
In comparison, cash payments were down 15 per cent year-on-year. And, I believe, there will be no slowing down in this trend as we progress further and further towards a cashless society – through contactless, and an increase in mobile payments, both for business to consumer and peer to peer payments.
The rise of alternative payment methods…
We’ll continue to see a huge uptake in the use of alternative payment methods (APMs) such as Apple, Android and Samsung Pay, and contactless payments, alongside the use of digital currencies such as bitcoin and GovCoin. And, according to the above report, APMs are forecast to grow by 56% to 877 million payments – which is perhaps a conservative estimate as more and more younger people come of age – a generation far more at ease with this kind of payment.
…alongside the increase in chat and pay technology
China appears to be streets ahead in their payment technology – with widespread use of mobile payments through chat technology, such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, which allows payments to be made during a chat conversation, similar to Whatsapp. And we’ll see the same pattern being followed by other digital payment countries in the EU, such as the UK.
So, next year, mobile payments will continue to disrupt traditional payment methods across all consumers.
W’ll see increased uptake, not only by millennials, but also by the hard-to-reach-and-convert consumer groups, including Generation X and baby boomers, with specific increase in day-to-day purchasing activities.