“Coins” (CC BY 2.0) by Tax Credits
With the day-to-day focus of a business being on what it is selling, it can pay to look at how the product or service, whatever it is, is actually being sold. All too often, a company presents an online face without fully understanding the range of services that can be offered through this valuable conduit. Here, we look at the variety of online payment systems available, and how an enterprising business might best take advantage of what’s on offer.
Purchasing tastes are changing
“Smartphones” (CC BY-ND 2.0) by internetsense
Even twenty years ago, most transactions were being conducted in a manner that would have been familiar to any merchant of the 19th century. At a customer level, paper money and metal coinage took care of most everyday concerns, and the chequebook came out for bigger ticket items.
As the signed cheque gave way to credit and debit cards, these, in turn, have begun to make way for phone app-oriented payment solutions linked to online bank accounts, such as the hassle-free convenience of Android Pay and Apple Pay. When everyone’s carrying around a smartphone, it just makes sense not to have to carry around a wallet full of plastic, too.
Internet-based payment options like PayPal should integrate naturally onto a company website for home transactions, but as the smartphone becomes ubiquitous, payments on the move have become a new norm; mobile payments in every meaning of the phrase.
Introducing Bitcoin
“Bitcoin IMG_3414” (CC BY 2.0) by btckeychain
It may not be the only digital currency currently doing the rounds, but Bitcoin is by some measure the most widespread, with truly global appeal.
As business confidence in the concept grows, Bitcoin is being adopted as a secure online alternative by more and more companies. Today, for example, people can visit BitCasino to witness the roulette table action at a virtual casino that deals exclusively in bitcoins. Where the iGaming industry venture to tread, other sectors follow, knowing the ground to be firm. Now big city finance is showing an interest. And the process is accelerating.
Behind Bitcoin and other popular alternative digital currencies such as Litecoin lies an exercise in higher mathematics known as the blockchain, which facilitates and secures virtual transactions over distributed networks. According to figures from Goldman Sachs, broad adoption of blockchain technology by banking services to optimise clearing and settlements could generate global savings of up to $6 billion per annum.
A recent study carried out by the World Economic Forum suggests that a doughty 10% of global GDP could be stored and traded via blockchain technologies over the course of the next decade as new applications come to light. All of this means that Bitcoin and company are worth serious business, and worthy indeed of the consideration of a serious businessperson.
Keep Your Payment Options Open
The more ways a company provides for customers to pay, the better. This may include setting up a global payment system using resources such as https://fastspring.com/global-payments/ for wider payment processing.
Convenience is everything in a world of on-the-go payments, and that makes payment flexibility key. The more payment options available, the more payments can be processed, and the greater the chance to expand the core business in consequence. The future is coming, and it’s going to be digital. Best to embrace the opportunities it affords.