E-wallet Payment Option – How’s the Scene in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific?Posted by iPayTotal on April 30th, 2019 The adoption of E-wallet payment options has experienced a high rate of acceptance in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific. These online payment gateways have been utilized in online gaming platforms and other industries to boost production and ultimately lead to profit realization. Digital wallets are gradually penetrating the market. They present a complicated level of technology aimed at increasing exposure and overall profits. The benefits of these technologies are expected to rise in no time. They are already shaped-up, have created market reception moves and improvements and are ready to ascend the ropes of enlightenment. They are now at the fourth and final stage where the processes are expected to yield tangible results. Knowing the importance of these E-wallet payment options to business in the 21st century we shall focus the better part of this article into understanding the basic facts about E-wallet platforms or payment options and their unique characteristics in the locations mentioned above.
The term E-wallets refers to the online version of the physical wallets you have. These E-wallets are powered by technology and are used in the storage of items broadly categorized into two; payment-related credentials (bank account details, card details, etc.) and non-payment related (loyalty cards and tickets). These wallets come in handy in assisting you to carry out online and/or offline transactions. There are two types of E-wallet cards name; open e-wallets and closed wallets (Starbucks Card, Walmart pay). The open E-wallet supports different payment methods and can be accepted by any high-risk merchant account such as Apple Pay, PayPal.
After the creation of PayPal in 1998, other forms of E-wallets made a grand entry into the US in 2007 when start-up digital wallets such as Adyen, Braintree, and Klarna were founded. They were primarily created to enable in-app payments, enhancing customer experience and reducing friction faced in the market. In 2010 T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T were launched into the market. They successfully introduced Near Field Communication (NFC) wallet where the mobile network providers were used in the storage of payment credentials. This lead to the introduction of other E-wallet platforms such as Stripe which made online payment processing easier and faster. This continued until 2011 and 2012 when the age of merchant wallets took over the market and led this led to the unique creation of e-wallets by Starbucks and other businesses. These wallets only functioned in their stores. In 2012, the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) was created as a consortium of the largest retail companies in the United States. They later went ahead to launch the multi-merchant mobile payment system, CurrenctC in 2015. Other forms of wallets which made a grand entry into the US industry include; Apple Pay (established 2015), Google Wallet (2011) and the creation of Android Pay to effectively compete on level grounds with Apple. Although there more than enough e-wallets in circulation in the market, about 55% of business owners prefer to pay for their items through credit cards since the online payment platforms are full of fraudsters. Only a small fraction (about 12%) of the US economy was able to make payment using a mobile app. Even with these feats, most people believe the future of e-wallets is bright. With their growing popularity, new players keep flocking the US digital wallet scene every year. And in spite of that, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Android Pay dominate the market.
Unlike the US which has a huge turnout and creation of E-wallets. In 2015, the European E-wallets market witnessed 9 launches. After that, the country launched 5 new e-wallets in 2016, and 5 other e-wallets were introduced in 2017. Data gathered from the World Payment Report 2017; it was discovered mobile wallet transactions are exposed to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 61.8 from 2016-2021. Most of the e-wallets in circulation are bank based.
The United Kingdom tends to be European’s landing ground for global e-wallets like Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Apple Pay. The overall number of e-wallets is increasing and with local service providers like Yoyo Wallet and Pay by Bank App are making waves and trying to become global players. Yoyo wallet has about 400, 000 customers and 1700 merchants residing in Ireland and the UK. Pay by Bank was created by 4 of the biggest banks in the UK (Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank, Barclays, and Halifax).
Most of the French Consumers prefer card payments to e-wallets, and this has been one of the major challenges of incorporating the highly effective e-wallet technology into all forms of transactions. Although the popularity of these e-wallets is expected to increase from 21.8% in 2017 to about 22.7% in the next five years, credit cards and debit cards are expected to fall from 16% and 15% to 10% respectively. To be in-line with the latest market trends, Paylib (launched by major French Banks) is the leading and most popular e-wallet in France with over 40 million active users. PayPal is the second largest with 7 million active users. Other e-wallets in the France market include but are not limited to Wa and FIvory which were merged in 2016 to create Lyf Pay. This merger also brought together major players in the industry such as Auchan, BNP Paribas, Carrefour, Crédit Mutuel, Mastercard, Oney and Total to create an e-wallet which covers a broad set of needs for French customers.
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