In a recent InternetRetailing webinar, How payment solutions can help your business grow, we heard from Alistair Singer, head of gateway, corporate customer solutions, at Barclaycard. Here’s a bulletpoint overview of what he said.
• Alistair Singer opened the webinar with an overview of Barclaycard’s online business: processing £319bn of consumer payments in 2016, and facilitating more than 35% of all payments made in the UK. “That gives us a lot of insights,” he said.
Market insights
• British consumers spent 9% more on leisure in recent years; 51.8% of tickets now booked via smartphone. “So if you’re in the leisure and entertainment business, having a mobile optimised website with a user-friendly pay page isn’t just a nice to have any more – it’s an essential.”
With inbound tourism now worth £58.7bn, and tourism spend exepcted to reach £135.5bn in 2017, it’s important to offer a choice of languages and payment options. “Every plan and every strategy must be framed by what’s happening in your market.”
Ecommerce insights
• This year it’s expected consumers will spend £27bn via mobile, while 50% of UK retail spend is on tablet and smartphone, and 51% of UK consumers now make most of their purchases online. “If you’re not optimising your mobile presence you are losing sales.”
• “You need to invest in mobile but not only on a responsive site – think about an app as well.” Growth in the US and this country of retail apps.
• Payment gateway provider should be your partner by working with you on: expertise in payments; innovation and intelligence: smart payment partnership.
• What can a gateway give you?
Omnichannel – covering website, store, call centre. Single view of customer’s payment interactions, however they make them. “That’s very powerful information.”
• Tokenisation
• Crossborder. “Ecommerce is continuing to grow rapidly across Europe and beyond, presenting new opportunities to expand your market.” 51% of global ecommerce transactions now made through non-card payments, while taking currencies such as the euro – enabling 350m Euro-spending shoppers to buy.
• Device agnostic: how agnostic is your pay page? Is it up to date as new devices come on the market?
What’s coming up by 2019:
• 80% of adults around the world will own a smartphone or tablet. “That’s a massive number, especially when you consider the first iPhone was only released 10 years ago.”
• £33bn of retail sales to be made directly via a mobile device, rising to £53bn by 2024.
• Mobile devices will be used to pay almost £1in every £7 in British shops. Contactless is now the norm.
• Big data: will provide tailored shopper offer. IoT promises ultimate interconnectivity of separate devices/ecosystems.
• Security and regulation: only 37% of organisations have a cyber incident response plan, but 18% of shoppers abandon purchases because of security concerns, with recent high profile attacks only adding to those concerns.
• GDPR coming into force next year. Tightens rules around consent and customer data management.
Summary
• “As merchants we have a lot to think about both now and in the future.”
• Look at your payments strategy: how can your payments partner help you achieve that.
• Mobile: you can’t think mobile enough, when 80% of adults set to own a smartphone or tablet by 2019.
• Security a priority for shoppers: as a retailer you must match their demands.
The webinar was followed by a Q&A session. To see the webinar, slides and hear the Q&A session in full, visit the Barclaycard webinar page here.
