Exploring Global Online Payment Systems: Key Trends in 2023

In 2023, every smart startup owner should review his business idea as a potential global project. Luckily, the trends in the payment industry facilitate even smaller companies to think in the right direction automatically, where future opportunities overcome real-time possibilities. It helps to exclude bottlenecks while scaling and helps businesses grow faster and be part of the global economy just after the foundation.

But what are the global payment trends in 2023 to pay attention to and prepare for? We’ve defined four directions and coming innovative changes that have already put down roots but still have massive room for an impactful raise.

Growing Adoption of Mobile Payments

The rapid growth of mobile technologies turned our traditional communication gadgets into unique and universal tools that replaced dozens of other devices. Unsurprisingly, mobile payment trends also found their place here, helping us forget about cash and banking cards and saving pockets from large leather wallets. It became especially vital during the active phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, where contactless payments became a must-have option.

This trend became possible with the remarkable speed of transactions made via mobile phones and their high-security level. Now, everyone can have multiple bank accounts, diverse credit/debit cards, and dozens of currencies in a gadget that is always at hand. Of course, merchants felt the switch too and now widely adopt it in both their online and offline stores, with small businesses being at the forefront.

While all these trends in mobile payments look too obvious, predicted growth of volumes is still crucial. Research and Markets expect global mobile payment volume growth from $1.7 billion in 2021 to more than $6 billion in 2027. No doubt the real CAGR can be even higher than the predicted 22.4%, so businesses should keep those numbers in mind and keep up with the trend.

Rise of Cryptocurrencies in Online Payments

It’s impossible to imagine a talk about digital payment trends without cryptocurrencies in 2023. Virtual coins and decentralized currencies past their recognition stage and fully entered the global economy as a growing alternative. With the digital nature of its roots, cryptocurrencies are actively widening their adoption geography in the online payments sector. In simple words, more and more companies, even small ones, can offer their clients to pay for goods and services with digital wallets.

Of course, the lion’s share of the overall crypto payments belongs to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether, with this trio holding almost 3/4 of the total crypto capitalization. It means that access to nearly $850 billion can be opened by adding those three cryptocurrencies as one of the payment methods — not the option a wise merchant would lose.

Nonetheless, cryptos are still in the shade of complete understanding and can potentially increase their volume and impact on the global financial services industry. Many people still perceive virtual coins as investing or diversifying features free of direct political influence, while others fear huge floating rates. However, blockchain gives cryptocurrencies instant speed and perfect transaction protection, with the latter being among the most discussed trends in payment processing in the coming years.

Enhanced Security Measures in Online Payments

Despite reviewing cryptocurrencies as one of the best instances of safety, payment processing industry trends are still mostly related to more traditional security measures. The talk is about encryption level, compliance with PCI DSS, AVS, and 3D authentication, which are constantly upgrading and regularly updating.

With e-commerce payments fraud more than doubling since 2020 up to $48 billion, the security issue will often be in the headlines. And while most people think that fraud is mostly related to users' inattentiveness, companies know that they should do their best to secure every possible aspect and save this “convenient” opinion. If more and more clients see problems with their financial safety, the reverse trend of digital payments can send the whole online sales sector to the knockdown.

Since global online payment trends are moving toward more and more digital payment methods, better protection is needed by default. The European Central Bank’s report says that the increase in security transactions has almost no effect on the human perception of contactless defrayal. However, everyone understands that clients will quickly return to cash if they see that digital payments are insecure.

Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Payment Systems

The new trends in the payment industry show that AI-based solutions, first of all, help to cope with security. We are talking about machine learning that can help to detect suspicious activity or behavior, preventing both involved sides from fraud.

At the same time, artificial intelligence has an even broader application in modern online payments. Thus, AI technologies are actively used in the gateway systems, helping to facilitate requests between the sides during the defrayal process. Moreover, machine learning helps to define errors and monitor the process in general.

One more side of AI as part of payment industry trends is to help with bottlenecks’ defining. Neural networks are excellent at analyzing tons of info, which helps to see problems and potential development directions in the whole sector. Add to this faster communication with clients and proper information gathering, and we receive Shiva with an in-built supercomputer — it looks like a perfect assistant.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that the online payments sector is on the rise, and there are plenty of exciting trends to discuss. The major ones are related to the spread of mobile phones as the universal gadget for payments, the broader adoption of cryptocurrencies, and the massive assistance of Artificial Intelligence. The latter is also one of the keys to enhancing the security of the payments sector overall, with fraud protection being a tendency by default.

We didn’t mention the smaller trends that also deserve some attention. For instance, buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) or split purchases are simply variations of the credit card idea. The QR codes’ rising popularity and the spread of flexible mobile apps can be included in the section about mobile phones too. All in all, it only means that startups and merchants should keep their fingers on the pulse of global payments sector trends in 2023, which are a great source of valuable ideas.

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