Challenging the Limits of Payment Experiences
Digital payments are no longer just the means to effect a transaction. Nowadays, they are turning into a relevant and decisive action for users when it comes to choosing who to close the transaction with.
Digital payment options are defining whether we will operate through a certain app or whether we will buy from a certain business beyond the product they offer. The payment experience design -or lack of it- is a key factor for people to choose their channels. You can pay from a banking app, a virtual wallet, a payment button on a company’s website, WhatsApp, Facebook or using physical experiences such as NFC.
The Motivation Underlying the Payment
The payment action can be really painful or pleasing according to its underlying motivation, right? I remember those times when digital payments weren’t widely used, and I compare the moment of queueing to pay the bills vs. paying for a pair of sneakers I wanted. Waiting to pay or opening the wallet and dropping some coins was quite different according to the purpose I was seeking to accomplish.
However, digital payments are truly changing this conception; I heard someone say “I like paying my bills because it’s really easy to do it from my banking app.”
Positive digital payment experiences are boosting the sense of freedom we get when spending our money, and they allow us to convey our motivations in a much more fluid and seamless way. Money has emerged as a symbol that gives people a sense of freedom: those who have money can channel their motivations; thus, they feel free to do whatever they want to do.
On the other hand, the digital money movement becomes so invisible that it turns into a double-edged sword since it is more difficult to measure it and it even seems that we are spending less money. However, those who know how to use it and don’t take advantage of that situation can help users have a unique experience when they make a payment.
Part of what makes a good payment experience is to ensure that users still have control over their money.
Digital Payment as Service Value
Digital payments are spreading across all businesses and, today, there’s a need to guarantee them to stay on track, either using apps specially designed to process several payments that help users keep everything in one place, providing their own payment experience for their digital channel or adopting combined initiatives that allow them to enter the race easily.
It’s not about stepping 100% into the digital world because physical operations still exist, and they will continue to exist. It’s about finding a way to give that particular action a new meaning, to make it almost unnoticeable or part of a unique experience. During the pandemic, that demand became clearer and, now more than ever, we are making choices according to the payment services we are offered.
In either case, the goal is that digital payments become an alternative option that enhances the real underlying motivation.
I’ll show you the trends in which the partnership between technology and UX turn payment actions into a distinguishing feature of shopping experiences or service payment.
Contactless Payments
This is the #1 trend due to the current context: the pandemic. However, despite the health benefits, it allows us to speed transactions because several actions are condensed into one. QR codes and NFC allow users to make a payment with just one movement with their cell phone, cards, or cuffs. Moreover, payments without signatures are gaining ground, reducing the contact with objects even more, which clearly saves time for both parties to the transaction.
On the other hand, we have the well-known virtual wallets, which not only help optimize transactions but also offer features that allow users to handle money as if they had it in their pockets.
Contactless and interoperability
Due to the benefits of digitalization, all the businesses wanted to keep on top of the trend and cell phones were filled with payment apps. However, some financial sectors are looking for a way to simplify the user experience and give us the chance to gather all in one place.
Interoperable virtual wallets and QR codes are an example of the partnerships to unify resources and help us have fewer apps, fewer passwords and everything under greater control.
In addition, apart from being contactless, the payment methods must guarantee security.
Secure Experiences
Digital means of payment must ensure that the “invisible” money is as secure as when we have it in our wallets. That is why it is required that all the experiences that are offered are secure, but without losing their agility. For example, through biometrics or fingerprint authentication.
And, finally, something that is really important if we take into account the users’ motivational factor:
More Humane Experiences
Providing experiences designed based on cultural models and the users’ natural language is another way of ensuring that users still have control over the operations they are used to carrying out. Thus, we can find ways of reaching different user populations in a much more empathetic and inclusive way, either because payments are incorporated into the apps they use or by creating new applications with patterns that are familiar to them.
Bringing back the impact of the pandemic, more humane experiences can serve as a bridge for all the people that, having little previous contact with digital payments, were hit by the wave of digital acceleration.
Conclusion
It is clear that payment without borders is the trend in payment methods. Since digital payments were created, we can see that the limits between the most conventional and the most innovative are constantly challenged, creating experiences that invite users to handle their money in completely different ways, while still being controlled, secure and humane.
Money lives in virtuality and cryptocurrencies confirm it. Hence, digitalizing typical banknote movement processes is not enough anymore. We need to change the mindset and understand that other needs and opportunities are arising along with digital money. That means that we must also consider new payment means that emerge from this transformation.
Both digital payment suppliers and the businesses involving them know that the payment is the biggest friction point when channeling a motivation. However, if they manage to identify their audiences’ motivations and the contexts of use, they have an opportunity to transform the digital payment into memorable actions and leave a mark on their service.
