Will the Mobile Wallet Market in India maintain its growth or fizzle out?

Posted by Andrew Thomas on September 4th, 2019

In a way the future of merchant services and e-commerce brands lies in the hands of the emerging payment technology solution providers. With the likes of Apple, Samsung and Google entering the space, it’s only going to be better for the consumers as banks and financial institutions will compete with start-ups and technology players to come-up with the next big disruption. Talking about disruptions, mobile wallets is a major disruption in the financial space that opened several gates for a complete financial inclusion. In a country like India, which is developing and has a huge dependency on cash transactions, achieving financial inclusion will take much more than just using fintech solutions and mobile wallets therefore have a huge potential for growth.

Therefore, let us take a look at the future of the Mobile Wallet Market in India.

The greatest change in the payment industry is being driven by three core values that are security, usability and automation. Merchants and payment service providers, both want to utilize payment methods that are quick, secure and make the overall experience of going through the process a pleasant one. As of today, the closest entity to reach this feat has been credit cards. Research suggests that credit card payments will continue to rule in the coming times as well, however in-store payments that facilitate contact less payments like mobile wallets, are likely to grow and stay for a long long time.

The mobile point of sale payment, another extension of the mobile wallet market in India which is likely to push growth. The point of sale payments technology relieves businesses of the obligation of holding lavish brick and mortar set-up and enables businesses to take payments to the doorstep of the individual. If implemented thoroughly, then this segment has the potential to replace the cash on delivery method that is equally popular in the ecommerce space.

Even though, credit cards rule the game at the moment, the rising incidences of credit card frauds are making merchants look at more effective and fool proof ways to authenticate payments. In this regard, biometric authentication can help a great deal. However, it’s still at a nascent stage and will take the due course of time to become operational fully.

Advanced technologies like the artificial intelligence and voice technology are also be tested to see if they can minimise the chances of error and breach to ensure secure payments. Through AI consumers can easily shop and make payments without even having the browse through the website of their mobile device. When ‘assistants’ like the Alexa and Siri follow the order instructions of the buyer, then the shopping experience will change completely which may further require merchants to upgrade their stores accordingly. Well this may seem like a potential threat to the existence of the Mobile Wallet Market in India, however, the time that the implementation of this technology will take is immense. Hence there is nothing to worry for the mobile wallet market players at the moment.

Last but not the least the emergence of Blockchain and cryptocurrency are going to bring about a new kind of disruption in the digital payment market. The virtual currency is known for its enhanced ability for secured transactions, which will encourage more and more buyers to opt for it as it allows for peer-to-peer transactions without any breaches and traceability. With more consumers waking up to the need of having this digital currency as the source of payments, merchants will no longer be able to avoid making it mainstream.