The Future of Digital Payments 

We are living in an increasingly digital world. Transactions that took hours to complete a few decades ago can now be wrapped up in minutes. This trend has resulted in tremendous growth that is driven by money transfers, cross-border remittances and digital payments.

There are new challenges and realities now that we have a worldwide digital payment market:

• We must serve a global consumer base.
• We must negotiate different regulatory and licensing bodies across the world.
• We must educate our consumers on the safety of digital payments.

What can you do to prepare your business?

Embrace Underserved Consumers: A Global Opportunity

Even if consumers don’t have access to a computer — and let’s face it, most of them do via work, libraries, etc. — most have a smartphone to log on to the internet. Researchers predict that by 2025, underserved and underdeveloped markets will grow 75% faster than already developed markets. Business owners would be crazy not to take advantage of this opportunity!

Serving a different community will, of course, mean that you will have to make some changes to your business. It will also mean that you must get creative to come up with innovative solutions for your new consumers. Thinking globally means many more opportunities to make a profit.

As you begin to plan your next quarter, or indeed start planning for 2020, try thinking about your business with a global mindset. What new challenges might arise? How will you acquire new customers and then give them what they want? How can you use an already established product in a new and useful way?

Compliance is an Investment (Not an expense)

OK, so you decide to enter the global arena — now it’s time to invest in your company’s licensing and regulatory compliance. Yes, licensing can take up time, resources and money, but it’s worth it if it means access to a broader customer base that needs your expertise and products.

Each state or country has different rules and regulations. For best results, invest in a full-time compliance team. Your area of proficiency is probably not dealing with regulatory agencies, so hire someone who knows what they’re doing. It will speed up the process so you can move forward with expanding your business.

We all know what happens when Facebook is down or Twitter crashes — people panic. Now, imagine that your business was somehow tied to these websites. Not good. If your products or services are dependent upon someone else’s technology, then you are not in control. What’s the solution? Invest in your own flexible platform. Third-party products and services can be integrated into your platform if need be, but don’t forget to build to meet the needs of the global user. When other companies are scrambling because they are at the mercy of their tech suppliers, you will have your custom payment platform ready to go!

Being flexible and ready for the changes that the global market will inevitably present doesn’t make your business invincible, but it does mean that you are prepared to pivot and adapt when you need to.