Banks See New Opportunity To Close The Consumer Payment, Merchant Settlement Speed Gap

Consumers have been broadening their horizons during the pandemic — trying out new hobbies, retailers and even payment methods. Tools such as mobile wallets or contactless payment solutions have surged in popularity in the United States as customers look for ways to add speed to their purchases. One recent PYMNTS study found that 64 percent of bridge millennials — those ages 33 to 43 — made payments via digital wallets over a three-month period last year, for example.

Consumers could be gravitating toward touchless payments in stores partly because they are shopping more online as eCommerce becomes increasingly popular during the pandemic. Digital holiday shopping sales grew more than 32 percent year-over-year in 2020 as individuals eschewed brick-and-mortar stores for the safety and security of their phones or computers.

Many of these trends were ongoing well before the health crisis began, but it has rapidly accelerated the movement to online and touchless payments. Merchants who were taking more relaxed approaches to innovating their payments processes or adapting to new payment methods are suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a next-generation, digital payments ecosystem, and they need to find ways to keep up. Interest in emerging payment rails such as the Real-Time Payment network created by The Clearing House is ramping up among businesses as they look to support a multitude of payment methods and tools across various channels.

In the Anatomy Of A Consumer Payment Playbook: The Payment Rails Edition, PYMNTS analyzes how consumer payment and spending trends are changing during the pandemic and how this is affecting merchants’ abilities to offer them seamless and engaging transactions. It also examines how connecting to emerging payment rails could help retailers keep pace with these developments, as well as what challenges must be overcome for real-time payment networks and other such rails to see broader adoption.

Chesapeake Bank On How Riding Real-Time Payment Rails Can Benefit Today’s Merchants

Consumers are asking for more payments speed and seamlessness than ever when they shop, meaning merchants must move quickly to keep them engaged. These businesses need to satisfy consumers who may be utilizing emerging payment methods while also streamlining more traditional payment experiences, such as those leveraging debit or credit cards. Making sure merchants can accept any payment method regardless of channel is becoming key to competing, explained DJ Seeterlin, chief information officer at Chesapeake Bank in a recent PYMNTS interview. He noted that tapping new payment rails can help merchants keep customers’ payment processes smooth and easy regardless of their chosen method or channel. To learn more about how real-time payment networks and other rails can benefit merchants, as well as the role banks play in supporting these rails, read the Playbook’s Feature Story.

Deep Dive: How Merchants Can Tap Payment Rails To Offer Swift, Connected Payments To Consumers

Consumers’ online shopping migrations are continuing during the pandemic, with one recent PYMNTS report finding that 47 percent of urban-based U.S. consumers are now shopping digitally instead of in stores. Consumers who are shopping at brick-and-mortar stores are bringing digital tools in with them, with the report also pointing to a rise in the number of customers paying with mobile wallets or using contactless payment tools. Merchants are racing to keep up with these shifts in ways that keep the payments experience seamless and easy for consumers no matter what methods or tools they use to pay. Examining how connecting to emerging payment rails can allow these businesses to support consumers’ chosen methods could be key to keeping customers satisfied. To learn more about how integrating with new payment rails can give merchants key advantages in the expanding digital economy, read the Playbook’s Deep Dive.

About The Playbook
The Anatomy Of A Consumer Payment Playbook, an FIS and PYMNTS collaboration, takes a data-driven look at how consumers’ payments are processed and which technologies and innovations can optimize the payment flows. The Playbook series also examines recent trends in the payments space to provide financial institutions (FIs) and merchants with a complete guide to the ins and outs of consumer payments and to offer them a roadmap for navigating these challenges.