Pay on Mobile, a game changer for merchants?

The digitalisation of payment has accelerated the move to cashless transactions. Even before COVID-19, contactless payments were on an upwards trajectory, facilitating a shift towards cashless countries. This evolution is not as far away as you might think, with Sweden already poised to stop accepting cash in businesses in 2023.

New technologies usually crush existing ones; the metal tool supplanted the stone axe, the video tape fell to the DVD, then Blu-Ray and now streaming services. Does the use of COTS devices for payment ring the imminent death knell for the dedicated payment terminal?

When we think about financial inclusion, it’s tempting to associate it with poorer populations in emerging countries where cash is still the driver for a high percentage of transactions. Even though 43% of sub-Saharan Africans have an account at a bank or with a mobile money service provider(1), the vast majority of purchases are still completed using cash. In Nigeria, for example, the rate is 95%.

In today’s fast-moving world, convenience and security are essential to success in payment. This has become even more relevant in the face of unpredicted challenges posed by the post-COVID ecosystem we now find ourselves in. Many behaviours have been impacted by the crisis, compelling consumers and merchants to move away from the physical world of commerce. In this article, we will focus on the Polish market, where these changes have been clearly demonstrated through dedicated studies. 

In the past decade the increased interest in sustainable transportation has been pushing the EV manufacturers, infrastructure developers and charging station makers to constantly innovate and improve the century-old technology. The race is on for a better drive range, efficient charging, superior battery capabilities and of course outstanding customer experience.   

Not so long-ago, companies relied on servers and systems that resided in their own premises. If more capacity was needed a new server would need to be spun up, a task that could take weeks and would then need to be maintained, kept up to date via patches and capable of scaling as the company grew over the following years. This was a complex and costly exercise, one that would frighten the hardiest of IT managers.