The last year has witnessed the rise of the buy button. Social media sites and search engines have attempted to hold on to traffic and increase ad revenue by allowing consumers to buy products directly from ads.
Payments made using NFC-enabled handsets will account for $130 billion of worldwide consumer retail spending by 2020.
When it comes to the safety of their financial information, consumers still show a considerable distrust of technology companies and online retailers.
The last year has thrown the money transfer market into a state of flux. Online companies are challenging the near-monopoly held by a few firms and banks, putting the consumer back in control of their money with a greater focus on transparency.
The UK’s payment clearing system, Faster Payments, has issued plans to expand the service to more payment providers over the next year.
Over half of payments via Alipay are being made on a mobile device, one of the key areas of growth Alibaba is focusing on while facing stiff competition from the likes of Tencent and Baidu.
The largest financial institution in the US has filed a flurry of payment technology patents that hint at how consumer services are likely to change in the coming years.
Apple Pay’s Black Friday was a bust. The mobile payment method was used for less than 5 per cent of all Apple-Pay eligible transactions. On the busiest of all shopping days, surely a one-tap payment with an iPhone would be the quickest and easiest way to pay?
The crowds, the rush, the panic buying things no one wants just to escape a claustrophobic shopping centre… for many people, Christmas shopping is less a time of joy and goodwill than a vision of hell. Luckily, some exciting new technologies are starting to make the experience far more pleasant.
India might be lagging behind China, Russia, Brazil and many mature markets when it comes to cashless payments, but a surge in enthusiasm means that this is set to change.
