Arroweye Solutions On The Three Big Trends In Payments

The PYMNTS team caught up with experts in the payments field to ask them their views on industry trends, predictions for the coming year and what their ideal payments system looks like.

Arroweye Solutions‘ President and CEO Render Dahiya spoke about the three big thing in payments and what we can expect to see in the future. 

PYMNTS: WHAT ARE THE BIG TRENDS YOU’RE SEEING IN PAYMENTS IN 2015?

RD: There are three big things going on payments.  First is mobile. Apple Pay coming out made it into a big trend. The usage statistics say it’s a big challenge and people have to come up with more ways to make mobile engaging and friendly.  The second is EMV and the conversion of cards. EMV is a huge, huge conversion. It has never happened in a country this size before. Because it’s still in an early stages, it’s going to create challenges for consumers.  The third one is personal customization. We’re seeing a lot of our clients focus on getting their product to the consumer in a personalized and customized way. If you look at the prepaid scene, for example, instead of offering a rebate you see something that drives an action. It drives an action for that consumer because you targeted a message to them. You know they were looking for another adjcant purchase when they puchased the first thing. As the industry consolidates you will have to differentiate yourself. More and more people are looking at the differentiation point as a way to target personalized experiences for consumers.

PYMNTS: WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR PAYMENTS FOR NEXT YEAR?

RD: There are two things I see growing in 2016. First is EMV. Although there had been tons of talk about it and we had a shift in October, I saw statistics that say 73% of consumers surveyed didn’t have a chip card in their wallet. As we continue down the EMV path we need to educate clients and consumers on it because it is a mystery. EMV does two things to an issuer: it adds cost and complexity.

The second thing is focusing on consolidation in the payments industry, especially on the pre-paid side. Consolidation means you still have to differentiate from others to be successful. There will be more products where you can target consumers directly, one-to-one, with messaging.

PYMNTS: WHAT DOES YOUR IDEAL PAYMENTS SYSTEM LOOK LIKE?

RD: It’s frictionless. It has to be pain free; touch and go. It also has to be secure. Security is a huge concern for consumers since 2014 with all the breaches. It also has to add value. What we’re seeing with mobile and the slow adoption is that they’re adding value. It’s interesting to watch mobile apps go from a payment system to ordering systems. There will always be friction, certainly, but with all the innovations and players we don’t even know about yet, we will probably get very close. EMV may even create friction that pushes people to other products.