- The rise of online shopping, mobile commerce, and AI is reshaping how we make purchases.
- Consumers want secure, convenient, and personalized payment experiences.
- The risk of fraud has also grown, leading to consumer skepticism. Better payments can provide reassurance to consumers and merchants alike.
By Mathieu Altwegg, Senior Vice President, Head of Product & Solutions, Europe, Visa
Take a moment to think about it: How many times in the last week have you made a payment? If you're anything like the average consumer, it's probably hard to quantify. That's because payments — whether it's contactless in the supermarket or ordering a book online — are sewn into the fabric of everyday life.
Today's consumers are savvy, seamlessly navigating both physical and digital environments, and as a result, expectations around payments are higher than ever: we want transactions to be effortless and instantaneous, with top-tier security protecting every tap and click. At the heart of these evolving demands is the technology that enables them — setting new benchmarks for what's possible and prompting transformation across the payments landscape.
What are the key transformations impacting payments?
The development of digital technology matters profoundly because more and more of our spending happens online.
This new world of e-commerce isn't fixed. It's fluid, and it's still finding new forms. Emerging technologies like AI are rewriting the rules, creating smarter, faster ways to shop, sell, and serve — benefiting everyone from consumers to businesses to governments. It can help predict consumer preferences and provide personalized experiences whilst streamlining processes behind the scenes, analyzing transaction patterns and anomalies in real time to help prevent fraud, for instance.
But on a darker note, these benefits don't just serve the well-intentioned — fraudsters are exploiting the same innovations, finding cracks, and crafting new ways in. With new ways to shop, consumers are exposed to new kinds of fraud, such as data breaches and payment credential theft. AI opens new avenues for deception, such as deepfakes, social engineering attacks, and ever-more convincing phishing emails or calls. These risks leave consumers wary of online transactions or potentially skeptical about engaging with unfamiliar vendors.
It's merchants who bear the brunt of this customer distrust; they need to meet evolving demands for speed, security, and flexibility while also dealing with concerns about fraud. It might seem a hard circle to square, but it's not impossible to achieve.
How can payments be better optimized for consumers and merchants?
It all comes down to one word: convergence. Consumers today don't generally see a distinction between in-person and online shopping experiences: they expect the same level of personalization, speed, and security across both worlds. The key to all this is trust, which means consumers can effortlessly make transactions without giving it too much thought because they're confident that payment networks will keep everything secure.
UX convergence means enabling consumers to authenticate their transactions securely and with confidence across various platforms using a single, secure identity. Biometrics, like facial recognition or fingerprint scanning, can be used for seamless, more secure payment authentication. The Internet of Things supports hybrid 'phygital' experiences, while embedded personal data can enhance security and personalization behind the scenes.
At the same time, the idea of data and identity convergence is gaining traction. By centralizing identity attributes and payment preferences, consumers can manage their personal and financial data with increased ease. One identity across multiple platforms makes the process more interconnected and intuitive — not to mention faster and safer.
Another key development is the convergence of payment rails: the networks behind the scenes that move money from A to B. The future lies in building flexible, integrated systems that allow consumers to choose how they want to pay — whether online or offline — while enabling merchants to deliver a seamless experience across the board. This kind of interoperability helps consumers move from card-based checkout to identity-driven commerce, where a consumer's secure ID unlocks consistent payments across channels, devices, and cards.
Visa has long led the evolution of payments, building experiences that fuse UX, identity, and rails. Take Visa Click to Pay, a token-based solution that replaces the need for consumers to enter their card details, look up passwords or fill out long forms when shopping online. By doing so, offering consumers a more seamless way to pay online, powered by passkeys with the potential to help merchants convert more baskets into purchases.
In a digital landscape that can feel overwhelming, innovations like this offer clarity: giving consumers the increased convenience and security they crave, and merchants the smoother checkout experiences that drive both loyalty and sales.
Get the inside scoop on how Visa is leading the charge in e-commerce innovation.
This post was created by Insider Studios with VISA.
(1) Statista European, e-commerce revenue (October 2024)
(2) Ecommerce Europe, % adults purchasing goods online (October 2024)
The post From online shopping to AI-driven innovation, payments are changing. Here's how merchants can keep up. appeared first on Business Insider