ACI Worldwide has debuted a multi-country network to capitalize on digital wallets’ growing popularity.
The ACI Wallet Hub connects merchants in more than 70 countries to a single hub for more than 200 digital wallets, the payments company said in a news release Tuesday (Jan. 17), letting them “deliver native wallet checkout experiences for consumers.”
The release notes that while consumer use of digital wallets continues to grow, “many merchants are forced to manage multiple individual integrations and payment gateway contracts,” increasing their costs and slowing time to market.
According to ACI, the hub will save merchants from having to spend time and money on the development and maintenance of digital wallet integrations.
“Digital wallets are increasingly secure, flexible, and convenient, with Millennials and Gen Z, in particular, embracing them as a mainstream payment method,” ACI Worldwide Chief Product Officer Debbie Guerra said in the release.
As PYMNTS reported earlier this month, digital wallets can transform transaction-by-transaction data to give those younger consumers better insight into spending, and automate the actions required to achieve their financial goals.
Research by PYMNTS shows that 59% of consumers who tried a new payment method in 2022 chose to embrace digital wallets, including 66% of Gen Z consumers and 67% of millennials.
In addition, 42% of consumers in the U.S. are curious about digital wallets but haven’t tried them yet, suggesting a wealth of opportunity.
“It is the digital wallet, we note, that houses all manner of cards and spending options in one place and which harnesses data in real-time that in turn can be funneled across platforms, on offer from FinTechs and traditional financial institutions,” PYMNTS wrote.
Last year’s Black Friday shopping saw an uptick in spending driven in part by increased use of digital and mobile wallets, PYMNTS reported. This surge dovetails with a 9% increase in digital wallet use for in-store purchases worldwide, per the PYMNTS “How the World Does Digital” report.
There’s also an argument for small businesses that want to reduce innovation costs to consider making their digital offerings a priority.
“In today’s budget-conscious retail environment, small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) might be tempted to pump the brakes on innovations, but that can have a detrimental effect on customer loyalty and retention,” PYMNTS wrote Monday (Jan. 16).
One cost-effective strategy is to provide customers with expanded payment options, specifically digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. Still, small businesses have shown to be in no hurry to adopt these methods, possibly due to budget constraints.
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