TECHNOLOGY
ONGOING AND FUTURE TRENDS IN RETAIL – A PAYMENTS’ PERSPECTIVE
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Te retail industry, like so many sectors, has witnessed some tremendous changes over the past few years, a result of the steady implementation of new technology. Tis article will review these ongoing developments and will highlight other trends likely to be more visible within retail in the coming years.
As a starting point, Covid-19 played a role in these features. However crucially, the pandemic acted as an accelerator to pre-existing trends and as such these are here to stay. For example, online shopping was available and widely used prior to the pandemic but witnessed a massive surge during the successive lockdowns. Tis increase has not ended, online retail has become a very standard purchasing behaviour thanks in part to the rise of ‘click and collect’.
PAYMENT METHODS Another noticeable customer behavioural change that is fuelling digitalisation in the retail industry is contactless payments. Tey have increased dramatically over the past few years, to the point that they now represent over half of total of transaction volumes in some sub-segments. As of October 2021, the total number of transactions made using contactless cards in the UK amounted to over 1.3 billion.
Besides contactless, alternative payment methods are also growing, such as QR codes, ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ (BNPL, which is payment facility service, not a consumer credit) and of course, digital wallets – with apps on smartphones such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Te growing popularity of these payment methods and online shopping is driving a decrease in cash usage. It is most likely this decline
50
will not stop, although it is unlikely that cash will completely disappear. Whatever the case may be with global payment solutions and infrastructures capable of handling all types of payments, retailers are well equipped to face the decline of cash and the rise of cashless and digital payments.
OMNICHANNEL CUSTOMER JOURNEY Tese trends also illustrate that consumers want and expect a simple, fluid, and seamless customer journey experience. Tis obviously is a challenge for retailers; however, they have tools at their disposal to shorten the customer journey. As a payments’ solution provider, this is something we are seeing more and more of with our retail merchants’ clients, through omnichannel use cases such as ‘click and collect’, ‘order picking’, ‘Scan to Pay’ and “try it buy later”.
Te change in the purchase journey is particularly impactful to high street retailers. We are witnessing a rise of autonomous stores, equipped with walkout technology. Te idea being to shift control over the interaction of the purchase journey back to customers. Tis is increasingly important for merchants. In contrast, there is a noticeable decline in the traditional check out – someone scanning your products – and there is nothing to suggest this will stop.
homeofdirectcommerce.com | Direct Commerce
BY FRÉDÉRIC FRIZZARIN, HEAD OF PRE-SALES,
MERCHANT SERVICES, WORLDLINE
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