Money 20/20.

It has been a couple of weeks now and I have finally had a chance to sit down and write about the first conference in real life since 2019… It was great to be back meeting people face to face at Money 20/20 in Amsterdam after what felt like years of doing everything virtually. Whilst there, I was delighted to be part of a panel with Dora Ziambr of Azimo and Mark Shaw of Spotify talking about deepening relationships with consumers.

We discussed how payments played a part in that relationship and some of the considerations for businesses who are digitising payments. Today there are three key considerations: security, transparency and value - and there are endless possibilities to link them.

Payments firstly need to be safe and secure. When researching with customers in Europe, Banked has found payment security to be the most important factor in determining consumer choice of a payment method. 

Sometimes, providing secure transactions can mean slowing down the shopping experience. For some too little friction brings into question the level of security of a transaction - too easy? Is it unsafe? As new payment methods emerge, from QR codes to contactless, reassuring consumers is a crucial issue and this needs to be clear in the payment transaction itself. 

Alongside that, all agreed that transparency with consumers is key to build trust. Clarity on conditions of sale, refunds, cancellation etc. must be easily accessible for the customer. Once the security “hygiene factor” is met, there is opportunity to delight the customer and drive engagement with other factors such as speed of checkout, minimum data entry, offers and incentives or rewards. 

All of the panel agreed that there was no single solution for driving engagement - the ability to adapt payment methods and be agile on consumer offerings that drive value to the end user is imperative. 

For some, a personal reward or motivation is a driver of engagement. Until now many of the incentives offered to customers have been from the card companies - this drives engagement with the card but not the retailer who is ultimately paying for the service. It’s good to see there are now some alternatives coming into the market to shake that up and put control back in the hands of the merchant.

The ultimate goal is to convert a browser to a buyer and payments can help facilitate that. By lowering transaction fees and servicing costs the merchant can redirect funds to features to drive better customer consideration and keep them on their site - beyond item price. Pay by Bank : aims to help that process and give merchants more control of that engagement through a suite of offers and incentives that are embedded into checkout with a best in class checkout experience. 

I’m personally looking forward to seeing how payments adapts in the coming months and excited to be engaging in more discussions with businesses and the industry to see how we can shake things up. Sadly I will miss Money 20/20 in Vegas this month but looking forward to Amsterdam again next year!