The Virtual Future Of Payment Solutions

By Author: Shoeb Mannur
Total Articles: 22
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With the world going digital, payment solutions are slowly becoming an indispensable part of the online market experience. Whether it be payment gateways, mPOS (mobile Point of Sales) or simple link solutions; any form of payment that eases the customer's life is welcome. These solutions are hassle-free, quick and convenient.
The question that arises now is the future of payment solutions. Virtual Reality and Augmented reality are the new entrants in the market, promising to change the entire customer experience of online shopping. About $2.3 billion has been invested in VR and AR in the last year (2016). Considering this, will payment gateway go the virtual way as well? Or the customers will have to break out of the VR and AR environment and make the payments the normal way: by entering card details manually and verifying the same?
Obviously asking the customer to move out of the immersive environment and make the payment isn't appealing. The next best option for the payment solutions seems to match the experience being offered by VR and AR. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant has taken the first step towards ...
... the future. In October, 2016, they demonstrated a payment service which enables the people to pay with just a nod. For authentication, hand gestures, touch or a stare longer than 1.5 seconds on the virtual screen is required. This development in the payment services offered by Alibaba comes after they tried to inculcate "Pay with a Selfie/Smile" in 2015. Another company Worldpay is developing a virtual machine for card payments. A consumer needs to select the card and swipe it on the card reader machine. Next he/she can select the authentication password by tapping on the numbers scattered in the room.
All these attempts, for moving towards a Virtual world where customers get an immersive experience sitting in a single place will change the way people transact in the digital world. Aligning the payment solutions with these features and virtualising payment gateways will prevent the payment providers from becoming obsolete. It becomes necessary then for payments to evolve with time and groom themselves to suit the needs of the era!