You won’t need your phone with you to make purchases on the go in the future
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GN Focus report
Technology has reinvented the shopping experience, including the way we pay for goods or services. The introduction of mobile wallets has accelerated the adoption of digital payment methods. Today paying for things has evolved from swiping cards to tapping or waving your phone at checkout. But mobile wallets are just the beginning. Payment networks and manufacturers are building payment functions into more devices. Here are a few payment options already available or on the horizon:
Paying with devices you wear on your body is now a reality. Payment technologies will be available in a range of clothes and accessories that enable you to communicate, plan and pay without having to reach for your wallet or phone, according to payments firm Visa. Today, you can make payments with smartwatches like the Fitbit Ionic and Garmin. At this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia, Visa introduced contactless payments, which includes wristbands and rings, as well as credit cards to make seamless payments. To use, the wearer holds a wrist or hand up to a contactless payment terminal.
in artificial intelligence and predictive analytics mean financial institutions can identify patterns in data in order to create personalised solutions for customers. Because predictive analytics can mine through large quantities of data quickly and efficiently, many companies are utilising big data to understand their consumers spending habits. “Digital payments and services will capture a mountain of data on consumers’ demographics, spending behaviour, challenges and needs. The intelligence gleaned from this data, will help businesses better understand their customers. The resultant hyper-personalisation is really what digital transformation is all about,” says Verma.
The ecosystem for digital payments is well entrenched in the UAE, which boasts one of the
By 2020, there will be 250 million connected cars along faster 5G networks, according to Gartner. Visa and Mastercard are working with auto manufacturers to embed options in car models. Manufacturers are also testing ways to pay for gas, groceries, takeout, parking and other things from screens on vehicle dashboards. “It’s still early, but we are focused on bringing that to life this year, to have the ability for you, as the driver, to not just order from one type of merchant,” said Stephane Wyper, Senior Vice-President of new partnerships and commercialisation at Mastercard in an interview earlier this year. highest penetration rates of smartphones in the world. The average UAE resident has two mobile phones, according to estimates. And for every 100
Globally, the number of customers using voice-assistants is increasing at a compounded annual rate of 29.4 per cent, and is estimated to reach 1.83 billion by 2021, according to recent research. Companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon are already looking to capitalise on this growth. Several financial institutions and fintechs have taken a lead in utilising voice for their banking operations. When voice payments are enabled on virtual assistants like Siri, Amazon Echo and Google Home, you can multi-task and take care of “errands” in the moment with verbal commands. residents, about 78 use smartphones, according to McKinsey & Company. The country is also at the top of the global smartphone penetration index.
The internet of things (IoT) means appliances will also get smarter in the future. Several smart devices displayed at the recent CES show feature the ability to replenish and pay for supplies automatically. A glimpse of what’s possible: Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator, which lets you order groceries from the Groceries by Mastercard app; Whirlpool’s Smart Dishwasher, which, when synced with an Amazon account, can estimate when you’re low on detergent and order it for you. One concern though is the security features of these appliances to protect ocrucial payment data, such as credit card numbers and PINs.
One project that is set to introduce a society-wide cashless transformation in the UAE is the Emirates Digital Wallet. The plan was to roll out the app this year, under the trade name Klip.
Fully supported by the country’s banking sector and supervised by the Central Bank, it will mark a major milestone in the UAE’s push towards a cashless future, said Maki Vekinis, General Manager of Emirates Digital Wallet in an earlier interview with GN Focus. “It will enable person-to-person payments via mobile phones. Cash will disappear because you will be able to store, receive and pay money on your mobile.” Emirates Digital Wallet aims to be an inclusive digital payments ecosystem that also covers the estimated 1.3 million UAE workers whose incomes
Going totally device-free is an option. Biometric payments make it possible to pay by voice, face, iris scan or fingerprint. It’s not a big stretch from the biometric authentication currently used by some phones or applications. “The technology itself has been around for a while, but consumers were skeptical of it,” said Mark Jamison, Global Head of Innovation and Design at Visa in an earlier interview. They’ve since become accustomed to authenticating using a fingerprint via phone, and their preference has shifted from user ID and password to biometrics, he says. are too low to have bank accounts. “It will enable those who do not have bank accounts to benefit from the greater security of digital cash over physical cash,” he said.