As the payments space continues to burst at the seams with a plethora of payment partners and integrations, it’s more important than ever for ISVs and developers to stay carefully attuned to the next generation of payment processing. Here are three areas in which industry professionals would be well-advised to become familiar with and offer solutions accordingly.
Unattended Retail
Amazon Go was just the beginning. Unattended retail—which entails a fully cashierless checkout experience that encompasses vending machines, kiosks, and more—is the latest focus for retailers across the country. The benefits of unattended retail solutions are many: lower overhead costs, fully-customizable displays, and the potential for streamlined data collection. This means that ISVs and developers will inevitably see an uptick in requests for these futuristic, cost-effective solutions.
Contactless Card Payments
Although mobile wallet use in the U.S. has struggled to pick up steam, contactless card use is poised to soon fall in sync with the high usage rates that can be found in other countries. According to a recent Juniper Research survey, contactless card use is on the rise while mobile wallet payments like Apple Pay and Android Pay are declining in number.
Recently, Visa’s CEO Alfred Kelly shared that up to 100 million contactless Visa cards could be issued by member banks in the U.S. this year. And, JPMorgan Chase & Co. stated that in the first half of this year, all of its new and replacement Visa cards issued will be contactless EMV chip cards.
Contactless cards are closely tied to another big topic in payment trends: that is, advanced payment security technology like biometrics.
Data Security
A confluence of factors is quickly changing the face of data and payment security. Significantly, we’re starting to see a growing awareness on the importance of transparency when it comes to customer data collection. Additionally, the latest payment methods like contactless and mobile payments pose their own unique challenges when it comes to fraud prevention. Here are some of the latest answers to these new dilemmas.
- Biometrics–Biometric authentication methods like fingerprinting and voice recognition technology are slowly being implemented by a growing number of card brands, developers, and hardware and software providers. Mastercard has announced plans to incorporate biometric options with the launch of its upcoming contactless cards, while the rollout of 3D Secure 2.0 is paving the way for mobile-based authentication methods at checkout.
- 3D Secure 2.0–This new security protocol for card-not-present transactions is on track to be the card-not-present counterpart to the EMV liability shift. 3D Secure 2.0 will add a layer of security at checkout without reducing friction, and it will do so in a couple of ways. Firstly, it relies on a newly-robust data exchange between the cardholder, merchant, and issuing bank in order to assess the risk and identify the customer without any action needed on the customer’s part. Secondly, in the case that customer verification is needed, it can be fully built into the payment flow and can rely on biometric authentication methods. Down the road, merchants who use 3D Secure 2.0 will not be liable for chargebacks, whether or not the issuing bank has adopted the new technology.
- The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)–On May 25th of 2019, the European Union released GDPR in order to improve transparency between companies and EU citizens regarding the collection of personal data. In our incredibly interconnected world, many merchants and businesses residing outside of the EU will nevertheless be in scope with this new requirement by virtue of the fact that they collect data from individuals in the EU. Now that GDPR requirements are fully in effect, we’re already seeing the outfall: companies like Amazon, Apple, and Youtube have encountered issues with compliance. It’s essential that developers are familiar with GDPR: non-compliance fees can be as much as 4% of the business’ annual turnover.
When it comes to the latest payment trends and technologies, Cardknox strives to stay ahead of the curve. Yet for ISVs, keeping a finger on the pulse of the industry is just as important (if not more so). From the latest customer preferences, to emerging threats, to evolving technologies, staying in the know is the best way to boost your customer satisfaction and stand out in a crowded industry. 
