The payment-app features your users will expect in 2022

Delight your customers with a custom payments app.

White label solutions enable businesses to launch apps that can compete with the big players. With highly customizable, pre-built app solutions, you can reap the benefits of having your own fintech app without hiring an army of in-house designers and developers.

When choosing the right white-label provider, there are many aspects to consider — we’ve provided an extensive list here. But what is it that your user will be looking for in your app?

At Rehive, we put a lot of time and effort into understanding what your app users look for in a payments app. At the end of the day, your app exists for the user. The world of mobile apps is fast-paced and competitive — apps that understand their users are the most successful ones.

Before committing to a white-label wallet provider, we think it’s worth making sure they’ll be able to offer the features your users want. What are the non-negotiables and the game-changers in terms of app features?

We’ve put together a list of the most important features users will expect from your wallet app in 2022.

1. Great design and user experience 🤩

First impressions are crucial. Great design — what your app looks like and what it feels like to use it — has the potential to delight your users. They’ll spend more time on your app, interacting with your business, buying your products, and using your services if it’s an enjoyable experience. They’ll associate the feeling they get from using your app with your business and will judge your business by the look of your app — and a lot of this comes down to looks.

Finances are a very personal thing and bringing payments under the umbrella of your business can either delight your customer or upset them. It doesn’t matter how powerful and reliable an app’s infrastructure is, if it looks bad, it’ll cause doubt about the app’s quality and reflect badly on your business. Luckily some white-label providers offer beautiful designs that you can customize with your business’ brand.

Most white-label wallet providers offer regular demo opportunities. During your demo, make sure you think like a user. Pay attention to aspects of design quality and user experience. How does it feel, and how does it look? If you were to download this app as a user, would you feel confident about its quality? Would you enjoy using it? Does the app have smooth and intuitive sign-up and sign-in processes? Is it easy to use? Are the transaction flows error-prone with intuitive form validations and confirmation screens? Does the app have a fast and clean keyboard for amount inputs? Is the transaction history feed accurate with clear descriptions and statuses? Does the balance update automatically in the background? How does the app handle updates?

These are a few questions that will help you determine whether a provider is on par when it comes to look and feel.

2. Peer-to-peer and cross-border payments 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦

The ability to transfer money instantly between wallets is an immensely popular feature — a fact clearly established by the success of Venmo and Cash App.

Venmo started as an app offering a simple way to send and receive money among friends — it now has more than 80 million users. Peer-to-peer payments are an important feature for any white-label solution to offer. More often than not, peer-to-peer payments are free of charge. Cash App and Venmo deploy free peer-to-peer payments as a user acquisition strategy.

Splitting bills, sending and receiving money from friends and family and supporting local businesses aren’t the only uses for peer-to-peer payments either. Cross-border payments come in handy when sending money to loved ones in other countries. Historically, sending money to recipients across international borders has been an expensive exercise. Wallets supporting stablecoins on payment networks like Stellar are a great plus for your app to cut transaction fees significantly.

Sending money to an email address or mobile number, instead of typing an account or routing number simplifies the experience for users. It should be easy to send funds to repeat recipients without having to re-type the recipient details. The best part is being able to send money to a recipient that is not yet on the platform, where they will receive an invite to create an account and claim their funds.

3. Payment requests and invoice links 🔗

Payment requests make it easy for users to settle their accounts with sellers or peers. Users receive a link through any number of channels — via email, app notifications, or SMS, for example. The link takes the customer to a secure checkout where they can pay for goods or services purchased.

This makes life easier for users in a variety of ways, but the most obvious one is that they don’t have to be at the counter or in-person to make the payment. They can settle their bill from anywhere without needing to sift through invoices and load beneficiaries onto banking apps. All they need to do is click and pay.

If you have customers that often allow bills to rack up, payment requests and automated reminders are a great way to nudge customers to pay without needing to make awkward phone calls or send emails that might worsen the situation. This removes a lot of friction from the process of settling late payments.

4. Scan to pay 🤳🏽

Users love having the option of scanning a QR code to pay. This puts the control in the hands of the user. Opening an app and scanning a QR code means there’s no need to hand over a credit card, and users have the option of manually entering the amount to be paid.

Other scan to pay solutions, like the one used by Starbucks, displays a QR code or barcode on the user’s phone. At checkout, customers simply hold up the barcode in front of a scanner to settle their bill — the required amount is automatically deducted from their wallet balance.

Most banking apps now offer this feature, which means that this should be a standard feature in any payments app in 2022.

5. In-app purchases for delivery or in-store pick up 🛍

A great benefit of using an app for payments is that it can save users the time they would spend waiting in queues. In-app purchases enable customers of cafés and restaurants to order their food and drinks in the app and pick them up when ready — or have them delivered. According to Statistica, up to 26% of Starbucks customers said they used the Starbucks app to order ahead.

In-app purchases are a well-loved feature to be on the lookout for in your white-label wallet provider.

6. Currency conversions, buy and sell 💸

The option of transacting in multiple currencies on one platform has proven to be a highly sought-after feature on fintech apps.

Cash App’s growth has demonstrated just how popular multi-currency trading can be. In 2018, they added bitcoin as a currency on the app, saving their users the transaction costs and time associated with trading on exchanges. The app subsequently saw an astounding 353% increase in revenue year-on-year — growth that can be attributed to conveniently buying and selling bitcoin on the app. By 2020, bitcoin transactions accounted for 76 percent of Cash App’s revenue.

With case studies such as these, trading in multiple currencies has become a non-negotiable feature for fintech app providers.

7. Points and rewards 🎁

Getting points that get you a free coffee or discount on products in the future adds an extra layer to the buyer’s experience — besides the benefit of that free coffee and discount, it makes the buying experience more… well… rewarding. Rewarding users for purchases is a great feature to have on your app that will not only increase sales but increase the customer loyalty of your users.

Leveraging points and rewards are not only a great way to retain customers but also encourages users to spread the word through referral campaigns.

8. Security and authentication challenges 🔐

Users today are highly focused on the security of their accounts. When balances and payments are involved, the stakes are raised even more. Security features like 2-factor authentication and biometric sign-in are essential to provide users with the peace of mind that their account is safe and secure on your app.

Biometric authentication not only adds additional security but also improves the overall experience of using your app — it’s so much easier to scan a fingerprint or use facial recognition than to type in a password every time you want to use an app on your personal device. Security features are not something you want to compromise on when choosing a wallet provider.

Authentication challenges on important transaction flows and actions help create a sweet spot between security and convenience trade-offs. For example, logging in via a new device or IP and making a withdrawal to a new bank account should require extra authentication, whereas if you’re quickly logging in to view transaction history on your personal device, a lighter level of authentication should be sufficient.

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There you have it — the features that will rank your app among the best out there. Put yourself in the shoes of your user and make sure you offer the features that will encourage your customer to engage with your business and give them a great experience in the process. Although some of these features may seem advanced, white-label wallet solutions allow you to benefit from the latest technology without needing to reinvent the wheel.

You can find more information here:

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