2020 was a year filled with disruption. Businesses everywhere needed to adapt to shutdowns, shift their operations to a remote workforce, and rethink long-standing business processes.
From new standards in customer experience to new technologies to sweeping industry change. The payment industry was no exception.
There were many ways the B2B and B2C businesses adapted to the “New Normal” this last year. The question remains – which of the many 2020 payment trends we identified last year are making the jump to 2021 and beyond?
The REPAY team has identified some of the top payment trends in 2021. Let’s explore six of these payment trends below.
Contactless Payments
In March 2020, an RTi Research study indicated that 29% of consumers expressed concern catching COVID-19 handling cash, and 22% of consumers were concerned about catching COVID-19 from handling payment terminals. With contactless payments, consumers can complete point of sale transactions using RFID or near-field communication (NFC) technology built into payment terminals and cards – eliminating the need to handle cash or payment terminals.
Contactless payments were on the rise prior to 2020 because of the increased convenience and security they provide. This trend will continue to grow in 2021, and merchants who fail to adopt this technology will find themselves behind the competition.
Omni-Channel Payment Solutions“Omni-channel” refers to the different ways a consumer can engage with your business to make purchases. For example, perhaps your business accepts phone orders, in-person point of sale transactions, and at the same time consumers can purchase through your eCommerce store. Each of these three engagement methods is considered a sales channel.
An omni-channel integrated payment solution makes it easy for your business to process payments from any of these channels. With the need higher than ever to engage with customers where they want to, the adoption of omni-channel payment solutions will continue to increase.
Digital B2B Payments
In 2018 alone, business-to-business payments topped $38 trillion world-wide. Digital B2B payments are not only more convenient for both businesses, they also eliminate the cost of postage, payments lost in transit, and the transit delay associated with mailing a payment.
Businesses readily adopted B2B payment methods prior to 2020 - look for this trend to continue with more businesses accepting ACH, online credit card payments, and online debit payments. These payments are not only faster but more cost effective because merchants benefit from Level 3 payment savings.
Online Payment Options
Businesses began adopting paperless billing and electronic payments well before 2020. For those businesses who were still using a paper-based Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable processes, the lack of online payment methods was almost a showstopper for their remote workforce.
Online payment methods are not only secure, but they simplify and make back-end accounting processes more efficient and accurate. Payments received from online payment solutions flow directly into business bank accounts. Additionally, many online payment solutions provide back-end office integrations that record the payments directly into an accounting system – saving both time and increasing transaction accuracy. Learn more about the REPAY ClickToPay Online Payment Portal to see how easy accepting online payments can be!
Look for businesses who haven’t adopted online payment methods and paperless billing to do so in 2021, not only to eliminate the health concerns associated with handling physical customer payments – but to reduce overhead and increase efficiency.
Mobile Payments
What are mobile payments? They are any payment that consumers make using their smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. For example, consumers regularly make “in app” purchases using apps such as Uber, Postmates, or when they purchase their morning coffee at Starbucks. Mobile payments also include things like retail purchases using payment cards registered in their Apple Wallet or payments made using SMS payments.
A Juniper Research poll revealed 50% of the world’s population will use a digital wallet by 2024. Not only are mobile payments contactless, they offer a high level of convenience for consumers. Mobile payments continue to grow in popularity in 2021, as will adoption by merchants who accept them.
Faster Payments
The complexity and pace of business continues to increase, and businesses are always looking for ways to increase the speed of collecting payments. For many companies, identifying and implementing solutions to get payments faster is priority. While ACH requires 3 days to complete, Same Day ACH (SDA) are processed in a single business day. Businesses will to continue to invest in equipment and technology that helps facilitate these SDA payments.
Do you have questions about how you can stay up-to-date accepting payments in 2021 and beyond? Download the 2021 Payment Trends to Watch white paper to learn more or get started by contacting REPAY today!
How REPAY Can Help
REPAY has a team of payments experts standing by to educate you on integrated payment processing. REPAY offers omni-channel B2C and B2B integrated payment solutions and is a gateway and processor that is trusted by thousands of merchants daily to process payments. With payment integrations to many leading ERP and eCommerce platforms, REPAY is leading the way in the payments industry by providing omni-channel integrated payment solutions and 24/7 live customer support.
