You probably didn’t realize it, but the future of payments is already here. While you may not be able to ride a hoverboard Marty McFly-style to work each morning, you can use your smartwatch to pay for your coffee on the drive-in. Wearable technology – some of the most futuristic consumer technology innovations – is here, and is enabling nearly invisible payments.
Do you remember the wonder in your eyes when mobile wallets were first introduced? The idea of just simply tapping your smartphone on a payment acceptance device to pay seemed magical and in many ways, it was! The fact that you didn’t even have to take your credit card out seemed like a dream and it made you think that someday you could leave your wallet behind at home.
When people talk about contactless payments being the norm in transit they most often think of Transport for London, which has been incredibly successful with more than a million taps a day. What they don’t typically think of: U.S. transit. But things are changing.
Revamping the customer experience is all the hype in 2019 and according 451 Research, optimizing the checkout is central to providing a good in-store experience. All too often, customers abandon carts because of long lines. In fact, 56 percent of consumers can recall doing this at least 1 or more times in the last six months. If you’re still not convinced that a frictionless checkout is important, consider Amazon’s 1-Click technology that is worth billions thanks to its method of capitalizing on impulse purchasing.
Biometrics today, such as fingerprint readers and facial recognition, are making the payment experience more secure and seamless for consumers. Biometrics have been widely used in other industries including law enforcement, healthcare and voter registration for several years. In the past, authenticating a person came only in the form of either something you have (a key, a badge) or something you know (a PIN, a password). A password is more difficult to steal than a physical object, but it can still be done. Biometrics today also verify identity based on characteristics unique to the person which cannot be stolen or replicated (for the most part).
