Worldline - 2019 Universal Registration Document

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THE PAYMENT INDUSTRY Key Market Trends and Drivers of Change

Key developments in technology will sustain the growth of B.4.2 electronic payments

Conversational commerce B.4.2.3 Conversational commerce is ecommerce done through various communication means such as chat bots and smart speakers (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri from Apple). As chatbots and voicebots connect messaging apps to commerce, increasing numbers of consumers are already using these services to find and select products and services and then to pay for them. Powered by fast-maturing technologies such as machine learning and Natural Language Processing, voicebots are enabling new ways to connect customers to their merchants. With the introduction of voice biometric recognition and authentication, the role of voice in online retail is set to soar. On the horizon B.4.2.4 Technologies that were once the preserve of science fiction are set to transform how we pay in the future. The current revolution in payments is still mainly focused on human interaction but Machine to Machine technology can remove this and enable automated payments with little or no human interaction. In the medium term, Worldline expects to see an expansion of today’s payments framework to allow ‘things’ to access consumers’ bank accounts. This will, of course, require permission from consumers, but, fundamentally, it can happen without human intervention, either triggered by a device or by a piece of AI software. To ensure the same levels of trust and security as Worldline has today, this new era will require watertight regulations and the further development of innovations for smart authentication and verification, notably biometrics and blockchain.

Every player in today’s payment market has to come to terms with change and innovation on a scale that has not been seen in a generation. New technologies and new ways of engaging consumers are delivering unprecedented opportunities for growth of electronic payments. At the same time as embracing new technologies, consumers, merchants and financial institutions also want the point of interaction and payment to become as frictionless as possible. Contactless Payments B.4.2.1 The rise in contactless payments is a significant move towards electronic means replacing cash for low value transactions. For example, the total value of contactless transactions was £6.9 billion in the UK in August 2019, a 15.7% increase from £6.0 billion in the same month in 2018. This data includes transactions on both UK-issued cards and cards issued overseas. (Source: UK Finance). Contextual commerce B.4.2.2 Contextual commerce is a potential game-changer in the way businesses engage with consumers. In its simplest form, contextual commerce is selling consumers what they want, when they want it in the most frictionless way. It enables merchants to deliver purchase opportunities to consumers in a contextually and personally relevant way. Social media is a key driver and an example of contextual commerce is when Instagram launched the ‘checkout on Instagram’ feature in March 2019, enabling users to purchase items directly from their feed through an integrated tag.

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Universal Registration Document 2019