The Race To The Effortless Experience

“Given the seismic shift to digital, the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing retail to achieve innovation in three to six months that would otherwise have taken three to five years. Payments need to go where consumers expect them now, too.”

Payments have gone beyond mere utility to become enablers of experience. That’s inspiring bold new experiments in commerce as more companies see a future in direct-to-consumer (DTC) engagement. “The pandemic has brought uncertainty to many businesses, but at the same time, it has sparked innovation,” said Ro Bhatia, chief operating officer at sticky.io. “Time to market is key, and that’s where sticky.io is investing. Helping brands launch their DTC and subscription businesses with the flexibility to sell how their customers want to buy – and fast – is the future of digital commerce.”

The following is an excerpt from How 35 Execs Are Powering The Great Digital Shift Of 2020 (And Beyond), contributed by Ro Bhatia, chief operating officer at sticky.io.

Payments are no longer just infrastructure — they are a crucial digital experience factor for consumers. Startup brands are taking advantage, and established players are catching up. At sticky.io, we are seeing the evolution of payments firsthand, and are using this knowledge to educate brands on the “crawl-walk-run” approach they should take to sell directly to customers.

Given the seismic shift to digital, the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing retail to achieve innovation in three to six months that would otherwise have taken three to five years. Payments need to go where consumers expect them now, too.

Payments Drive Digital Experiences for Brands (and Consumers)

Order-ahead mobile apps from brands like Kohl’s, Dunkin’ and more are continuing to gain traction. Installment payments are growing in adoption. Rewards programs are given major focus from Amazon (Prime Reload gives Prime members 2 percent cash back when loading money into an Amazon account), and the Visa and Uber partnership lets riders earn rewards at local merchants, delivered seamlessly through their Visa card.

For merchants, working with payment processors who can provide seamless integrations with mobile pay apps and provide a lower-cost mechanism for mobile transactions will give them a competitive advantage. Online businesses need to be flexible in providing various ways customers can buy, and sticky.io is constantly exploring and expanding our local payments solutions to provide more buying flexibility to our customers.

B2B Payments Players Look to Expand

2018 saw a substantial increase in mergers and acquisitions in the payments space as existing players looked to build the platforms required to compete. PayPal made four acquisitions in FinTech, predictive marketing and fraud prevention companies. Adobe acquired Magento, and a host of activity is occurring in Europe as well.

Square and Stripe have expanded beyond payments with third-party integrations to provide the financial infrastructure to help their eCommerce and retail clients succeed. Both take advantage of their unique merchant data. At
sticky.io, we’ve partnered with Square, allowing their customers to quickly and easily launch subscription programs to drive predictable and profitable recurring revenue streams.

More Contactless and Cardless Payments (Really, This Time)

We’ve been hearing claims that the era of the card is over since Apple Pay launched years ago. But adoption lagged – especially in the U.S., where many large retailers were slow to implement EMV and contactless tech at the POS. But now things are looking up — and not just for Apple. Retailers and payment providers are introducing or further developing their own mobile payment apps – Walmart is one example.

Most of these alternate payment options are only supported through specific payment gateways. sticky.io’s recurring billing platform supports all of the leading digital wallet providers, including PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and Affirm.

The pandemic has brought uncertainty to many businesses, but at the same time, it has sparked innovation. Time to market is key, and that’s where sticky.io is investing. Helping brands launch their DTC and subscription businesses with the flexibility to sell how their customers want to buy – and fast – is the future of digital commerce.

Read more executives’ insights in How 35 Execs Are Powering The Great Digital Shift Of 2020 (And Beyond).