The Importance of the Digital Payment Sector

The digital payments sector is one that has seen a massive expansion in recent years. Driven by the limitations of traditional banking and cash, consumers are happy to change their payment habits and take advantage of the benefits the digital payment sector has to offer. 

Our use of mobile devices for so many things in daily life has meant they have become part of our expected way of life. Faster delivery of the products we buy has also become expected by customers, this has led to a booming new industry driven by these expectations. 

No country wishes to be left out of this global shift toward eCommerce and digital payments. Growth is harder for some countries than others, those with less well developed traditional banking networks are working hard to catch up and take advantage of the benefits the technology brings.

The Growth of the eCommerce Market

With the eCommerce market now being worth close to $5 trillion per year, this growth trend shows no abatement. With such a staggering level of growth, even though the market has a good number of established payment technologies and global market players, there is significant demand for new payment options and a new breed of a start-up is emerging to fulfil the need for this technology to be further developed and implemented. Companies are involved at all levels of development and implementation, from those running financial services themselves to the tech companies providing back end solutions and infrastructure. Some trends in growing sectors have emerged and products like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) are gaining ground at a pace.

Even traditional payments made by cheque are receiving attention from the digital payments sector. Cheque imaging technology may soon speed up the clearance times for this traditional payment method.

The companies providing these new services take a different attitude to the traditional banks willing to collaborate and develop joint products have led to innovations like contactless card payments.

Companies Accepting International Payments

Cross-Border Payments have been transformed with the application of blockchain technology. This area is one of high growth with global trade expected to triple by 2025, topping $85 trillion: With such growth and the widespread introduction of new technologies companies adopting the new tech are streamlining their operations to take the best advantage of the available benefits. 

With the UK supporting more than 2500 businesses involved in the digital payments sector, the pace of growth is not likely to slow as customers look for further services to speed payments and provide new relevant methods of transacting business.

Worldwide growth is not evenly spread; hotspots of growth are showing in countries like Singapore and Malaysia where one of the strongest markets for mobile payments exists. Other countries to watch in Asia are currently Indonesia and Thailand where eCommerce growth is exploding.

Digital Payment Sector Companies

It is hard to choose examples of companies to watch in this sector as growth is fast and innovation is rapidly driving sector evolution, one thing for sure is the companies within this sector are very driven to provide the benefits of new technology developments to their customers.

• Flutterwave

Flutterwave has seen incredible growth over the last 5 years, from its base in San Francisco it provides an international payments system enabling companies to accept payments easily from a wide range of different countries including areas not traditionally well served in this area like Africa. Flutterwave can list Booking.com and Uber as current clients with more to come this is a great example of how the sector’s growth has helped build successful companies.

• Rapyd

Rapyd are a London based outfit that develops integrated solutions for the app market. They have seen incredible success with their products and services which deliver payment services able to cope with cross border transactions in different currencies. Having cut a good track record in this area working for companies like Paysafe as well as banking institutions, Rapyd’s payment solutions have seen wide adoption in recent years.

• Gr4vy

Gr4vy are a newcomer having started in 2020, they bring the power of cloud computing’s abilities to provide a payment orchestration system which streamlines business payments from different payment platforms including PayPal and Stripe. Gr4vy made it into the list of the world’s top 20 companies in the innovation category in 2021 and continues to enjoy increasing success.

Industries That Make Use of The Digital Payment Sector

The continents of Asia and India have recently started to see some of the largest growths in the industry. Companies trading in this sector are enjoying the benefits of being at the forefront of a growing industry headed towards a new era where the demand is high and sectors like iGaming are flourishing. 

It stands to reason that any eCommerce venture is going to want to make sure they offer a variety of ways for customers to pay & that the process is as easy as possible. After all, you don’t want to lose customers at the last hurdle when it comes to making payments. Online banking and investment platforms certainly need to make sure that their digital payment options and varied and keep up with the demand of their customers. However, equally, if someone wants to shop at an online fashion store this is something that needs to be easy to do.

Another prominent sector for the digital payment industry is iGaming. iGaming operators offer a host of different payment options for users and the market is growing worldwide. This can be seen by the range of casinos accepting Trustly in the UK alongside other methods of payment. This is an area of rapid expansion with the relationship between cryptocurrency and eCommerce growing stronger each day. This brings us back to our adoption of mobile technologies in our everyday lives, with shopping now an online exercise for many.

As you may expect, we’re likely to see some changes thanks to technology within the digital payment sector – the more mainstream implementation of Cryptocurrency for example and this is where start-up companies that are forward–thinking and offer ahead of the market technology will be able to thrive.