Technology is rapidly evolving and so is the business world. Therefore, it is no surprise that credit card processing services have changed significantly in the past decade and will continue to do so in the coming years. While nobody can predict with certainty what will happen to payment processing in the future, we can examine the latest trends and see in which direction the industry is going in.
Mobile Payments Will Continue to Grow
We all know that mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are getting increasingly popular among consumers. The world of electronic commerce, where transactions would occur almost exclusively on PCs is now being changed forever. Consumers increasingly use their mobile device to make an online purchase and can either have the item shipped to their home, or pick it up from a retail location.
But mobile devices can now be used for face-to-face commerce as well. Some credit card processing services have created apps and hardware devices that allow merchants, big and small, to accept credit card payments on a mobile device. The customer can now simply swipe their card through an attachment to a smartphone or tablet in order to pay for their purchase. This can be very beneficial for certain categories of businesses, such as street vendors, who often lack the infrastructure to process credit card payments and rely exclusively on cash.
New Payment Processors Will Emerge
Previously, merchant accounts issued by a financial institution were the only way for a business to accept payment cards. While this may have been a suitable option for mid-sized and larger businesses, smaller merchants with lower sales volumes were often finding it difficult to find a way to accept credit cards.
With the arrival or various payment processing service providers, this has changed significantly in the past few years. Now, anyone who wants to accept credit cards, either online or at a physical location, can do so with minimal up-front costs and without going through a lengthy and complicated approval process.
New payment processors, which offer features similar to regular merchant accounts, are now rapidly growing in popularity. They bring innovative solutions to the industry, such as giving shoppers the ability to make payments simply by tapping their smartphone on a receiver, as well as further blurring the line between regular commerce and e-commerce by offering mobile wallets.