What will change in terms of payment by 2030? A look ahead to paying in the future: How will we settle our bills? In any case, the freedom of choice will be in the foreground. The corona crisis marks a turning point for large parts of society and the economy. It accelerates existing developments and thus anticipates a piece of the digital future. This not only applies to vaccines or home offices but also to how we shop and pay. Under the general motto “keep your distance”, cashless and contactless payments by card or app received an enormous boost.
Paying In New Ways In The Future
What had long been propagated by retailers for cost reasons and which was often met with skepticism, especially among customers, became the new standard within a few days. Such developments will probably not turn back again. But how will it continue in the long term? What does the future of payment look like? How will we shop and settle our bills in 2030?
Integrative Process: It Depends On The Technology
A central aspect will be the design of continuous processes. The aim is to cover a complete shopping process from identifying a customer to paying in a holistic approach. You can imagine it to be something like starting a flight in 2030: As soon as you arrive at the airport, you are identified as an authorized user via the ticket so that there are no queues at check-in or the security check, and the process accompanies the passenger finally to his seat.
Reliable, high-quality technology will be available to ensure that this works smoothly. However, one thing must be taken into account: These prerequisites are not given everywhere and not for everyone; therefore, alternative ways of getting on an aero plane must always be offered simultaneously. Air traffic as a whole will only work if it covers all options, high-tech and low-tech.
Similarly, one can imagine the future of payment in an integrative process. There will be shops that work with highly integrated solutions: Here, the customer is identified as soon as he enters the shop, he may receive individualized offers, select the appropriate goods, and at the end, the payment process runs automatically without queuing or waiting, of course including the necessary checks. All of this ensures a high level of convenience and security.
Cash Doesn’t Go Away
Such high-tech solutions will undoubtedly become very widespread, not least because they transfer a standard that the online world has successfully set to the analogue shopping world. Still, that can’t be the whole picture. As in air traffic, there must also be alternatives here for those – be they providers or customers – who cannot or do not want to use fully automated processes, for example, pay conventionally with cash. For this reason, various options for mapping the payment process must continue to exist in parallel in the future.
This ambiguity, this coexistence of different options, does not only exist on the part of the payment processes of the future but also in terms of payment methods and technologies: cash is the only anonymous means of payment and will not disappear. In the age of extensive data collection and transparency, anonymity has a consistently high priority.
Paying In The Future: Everyone Should Have Freedom Of Choice, Whether Cash Or Digital
Mobile, digital means of payment, on the other hand, offer a high level of convenience, for example, when you can pay by mobile phone and app or with a bracelet. In the future, too, not all citizens and not all countries can and will not use all the digital world’s opportunities. In the end, payment will be about having the freedom of choice – cash, by card, by mobile phone or entirely digital, depending on the user’s needs. True to the motto: no matter when, no matter where, no matter how.
ALSO READ: Digitization: 7 Steps To Cost Savings And More Efficiency In Companies
