Biotech will be the future of payments, say consumers

Retail Week surveyed a nationally representative pool of 2,000 online UK consumers in August 2017 to find out how they shop online currently and how they see themselves paying for goods in the future.

The findings in the Next-gen payments: what shoppers want report, produced in association with payments provider Klarna, shows there is a consumer appetite for new ways to pay and that retailers will need to invest to keep pace.

Currently, only 10% have actually used fingerprint technology to pay for goods and just 3% have used selfie payments.

However, when asked what payment methods they would like to see retailers provide in the future, selfie payment, such as Mastercard’s Identity Check Mobile system, which launched in October 2016, as well as iris scanners, fingerprint readers and voice recognition were some of the top choices.

Key to the customer journey

Customer experience is a key battleground for retailers online, with payment options being a major factor.

“As the payments space evolves, so too do demands for how people access and pay for products and services in an online age”

Karen Pepper, Amazon Pay

Three quarters of the consumers surveyed said having a range of payment options would ‘positively affect’ their experience of shopping with a retailer, proving the importance of the online payment process in the customer journey.

Karen Pepper, head of UK for Amazon Pay, says customers are driving change: “As the payments space evolves, so too do demands for how people access and pay for products and services in an online age.”

The survey also analysed consumer pain points in the digital shopping journey, with 57% of respondents citing unexpected delivery charges being applied as their reason for abandoning their online basket, while 77% said security was foremost in their minds when making a payment online.

To learn more about what consumers expect from the future of payments, read the full report here.