GiftCard Partners Blog

GiftCard Partners insights on the 2013 pymnts.com Innovation Project held at Harvard University.

Consumers have begun an organic transition into mobile payments and digital currencies. They are slowly filing cash, check, and credit cards right into the history book, next to the floppy disks and video tapes.

Last week GiftCard Partners senior management attended Money 20/20, the biggest industry event surrounding payments and payment technology. The team learned quite a bit on the trip about what the latest technology could mean for how consumers pay for goods. A study released by
Accenture, put an interesting spin on payments that can sometimes can get lost in the latest technology and the cutting edge applications: the consumer perspective. The ongoing challenge in the consumer payments industry has been consumer confidence and adoption. Every wallet, app and mobile device is useless if consumers aren't willing to put their personal information in and use the technology. In the Accenture
survey of over 4,000 North American consumers, they expect to use traditional consumer payments methods like cash and credit 66% of the time, but that drops to only 54% by 2020. While the number is modest, it shows a trend over time that indicates consumer adoption is trending the way of mobile and virtual payment options. The survey results also indicate that although there are the typical fears about security, consumers are also interested in payments choices. Consumer choice overcoming consumer trepidation is the ultimate formula to real mobile and virtual payment adoption. Consumer impact is the only thing that will allow the consumer payments industry to truly turn the corner.

Mobile payment is an increasingly popular trend. This makes a ton of sense when we look at the increase in overall mobile activity, from sales to marketing to everyday use. But when it comes to mobile payment, the steady rise is sure to affect everyone from retailers and merchants to those in the gift card business. In this
infographic, by e-complish, we can learn a lot about mobile payment trends and growth. In 2012 mobile payments only amounted to $1.5 million, but by the following year, that number had grown to $4.5 million, showing the exponential growth that the mobile payment industry is currently seeing. The U.S. and China are two of the leading countries in mobile use, meaning that they'll also be key countries for growth in mobile payments. Sixty one percent of U.S. adults own a smartphone, meaning that mobile payments will likely spread to many of those 61 percent, if they haven't already. Mobile payments crept into the payment systems and now have skyrocketed in popularity. It has been predicted that by the year 2025, as much as 20 percent of all purchases will be made on a mobile device. Because of the new trend, we're also seeing a growth in mobile payment apps and "mobile wallets." Keep your eye out for larger shifts in technology as we see more and more consumers paying for purchases on their mobile devices.  

In the past decade, payment infrastructure has quietly evolved, but the change is reaching a tipping point. What was once a back-office concern for banks now plays a direct role in how brands engage customers, issue incentives, and deliver value in real time.