Digital payments trends continue to influence the Fintech industry in 2022. As we’ve seen over the last few years, the various ways consumers prefer to pay for goods and services are ever-increasing. Looking ahead at what’s to come in the next 12 months, we expect this to remain true. The payments industry will continue to evolve as new customer preferences arise and vendors implement new solutions to meet these needs. As businesses ramp up their 2022 operations, here are four digital payments trends we expect to make an impact on the payments landscape this year.
Cryptocurrency-Based Payments Will Be Customary
This year, cryptocurrency-based payments, specifically Bitcoin, will be far more common than in previous years. Bitcoin payments will increase worldwide due to the development of the Lightning Network, other infrastructure improvements, and Twitter’s significant protocol investments.
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Compared to its historical fluctuations in use, the price of cryptocurrency units will “stabilize” as a consistent payment use. With dollar inflation and 80 million active crypto wallets, we’ll see widespread use of cryptocurrency as a payment form in both B2B and B2C transactions.
One-Click Checkouts Will Be the Secret to Customer Loyalty
Many payment players, such as Fast, Bolt and Skipify, are fighting for the singular customer of record. We are currently witnessing a land grab for all stores — not just the Amazons or Shopifys — to provide a single-click customer checkout. Those who accomplish this sooner rather than later will prevail and win customer loyalty well into 2022 and beyond.
Stripe Will Drive the Consolidation Push
As new options like Ayden and Square pop up every day, the number of ways to pay for services and goods globally is quickly getting out of control.
As a leader in the space, Stripe has taken the mission to consolidate these options into a sole experience by providing more services than any competing payment gateway. We can expect to see other gateways rapidly following their example as they rush to catch up to Stripe in the next year. Other big processing competitors with new services will work to obtain this market share. As a result, payment providers will continue to consolidate until few remain.
Lenders Will Prioritize Credit for B2B Companies
Similar to Klarna and Affirm on the B2C side, more lenders will step in to the mix and work with payment providers to establish credit for B2B company purchases. In 2022, we’ll see a big push for lenders to get ahead of the curve and start adapting this B2C-style payment as expectations shift for their B2B counterparts.
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The payments market has changed rapidly over the last few years, and we expect 2022 to be no different. The landscape will adapt to cryptocurrency-based payments rising in commonality and navigate the shift in expectations for B2B payments.
With the push from Stripe, payment providers will consolidate into single experiences and focus on catering to customer preferences to secure their loyalty. These changes will drive the payments landscape to new territory, as we anticipate continued growth and innovation in the coming year.
Business leaders need to understand the changes taking place so they can prepare accordingly and remain competitive.
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