These Four Trends Will Drive Payments Forward in 2019. Is Your Business Ready?
Demand for faster, more secure, more accessible, more powerful, more affordable solutions is an innovation engine in a marketplace as competitive as payments. The result takes many forms – expanded capabilities, new business models, new sales channels and products, innovative mergers, acquisitions and partnerships. The effect is the same – more competition, better products, rapid industry growth.
The accelerating pace of innovation continues to 2019. For payments professionals it’s critical to build a network and understand the innovation to capitalize on it. And there’s only one place to do it: TRANSACT.
At TRANSACT, the world’s largest payments technology event happening April 30-May 2, 2019 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, players from the ecosystem will come together for three-days of high-impact networking, thought-leadership and partnership building. On the show floor, 200+ exhibitors will showcase new products and services. Top leaders will give keynotes on the next big thing. And robust education content will provide payments executives with the latest intelligence and thought-leadership.
TRANSACT, like the industry itself, will be defined by four major payments trends that impel innovation and growth:
Evolving Sales Channel
The impact of technology and market evolution makes payments more accessible to merchants of all sizes. The payments industry landscape is being reshaped by Payment Facilitators as they expand the ease and accessibility of payments acceptance, while integrated software vendors (ISVs) provide business software solutions that integrate payments processing for small merchants.
The ability to serve existing customers and attract new customers by these entrants creates new opportunities for the industry. Acquirers have shifted their focus to creating partnerships with these communities as they see a 122 percent growth in U.S. card processing by the ISV sales channel over the past seven years (source: TSG Analysis). The market change from simple processing products to robust merchant service solutions continues to create waves in the sales channel.
Sales channel players like Apptizer, CardFlight, First Data, Dejavoo, Paysafe, Paya, Worldpay have a large presence on the show floor and across TRANSACT’s many networking opportunities. For attendees looking to bolster their place in this evolving sales channel through partnerships and product, TRANSACT in 2019 is critical.
New Models of Payments Acceptance
Payments innovation, from contactless cards to mobile wallets and apps, give consumers more options on how to pay. New forms of payments enablement at the Point of Sale (POS) have expanded the use of contactless solutions and payments acceptance through a variety of methods, like smartphones, peer-to-peer apps, and even IoT solutions like a connected car, voice-activated device or a refrigerator. In fact, ETA’s Payments Trends to Watch report predicts that US merchants will spend nearly $2 billion on POS hardware and solutions that enable these frictionless solutions in 2019, underscoring the value that advanced payments solutions provide to merchants and payment service providers. With total mobile payments volume expected to surpass $1 trillion worldwide by 2019, exhibits and education sessions will highlight the emerging trends in payments acceptance and the form factors that enable them.
On display at TRANSACT will be the ease, speed and security offered by electronic payments from companies like Verifone, Ingenico, MyntPOS, Magtek, Mastercard and Visa, offering solutions that leverage the powers of voice commerce, the IoT and contactless to drive frictionless sales for merchants.
Securing Data in the Payments Ecosystem
Protecting and preserving the critical data transmitted during the payment process is paramount to a healthy ecosystem. With the threat from bad actors ever-present and growing, it’s clear that security solutions will only become more paramount to the ecosystem. A recent study on card-not-present fraud from Juniper Research found that payments companies and financial institutions will spend $10 billion on fraud detection and prevention solutions by 2023. Next generation security products secure the environment both online and in-store, relying on new approaches through artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics and distributed ledgers.
Leading payments security firms like ControlScan, Forter, SecurityMetrics and Trustwave will bring their experts and innovators to their booths. TRANSACT attendees can count on leading-edge analysis of the data security environment in every education tract.
Integrated Payments
Banks and payment processors are engaging and collaborating with software providers to integrate the latest payments technology into their offerings to meet merchant’s growing needs. The merchants point-of-sale is now a point of connection to a marketplace of applications and software that go beyond payments acceptance. The new tools that enable small merchants to accept payments, along with the integrated software solutions that bring speed and efficiency to their business operations, are significantly changing the merchant acquiring industry
The potential for payments companies who lean into integrated payments is substantial. ETA’s Payments Trends to Watch report predicts that merchants will spend $2.4 billion on POS software alone in 2019.
Next-gen platforms and solutions – from companies like Amaryllis, Aliaswire, IRIS CRM, and USAePay – are a consistent focus for the TRANSACT show floor.
With these trends on the horizon for another year of accelerated growth in the payments technology industry, one question remains: is your business ready? Have you made the connections, built the products, cornered the market as society moves towards more ubiquitous and powerful payments solutions?
One thing is for certain: TRANSACT – with over 4,000 attendees, a robust exhibit hall with more than 200 exhibitors, extensive networking events, and forward-looking educational sessions on the groundbreaking technologies, trends and policies shaping the payments industry – will help you get there.
