How to: Take your payments mobile in Australia

Fumbling through wallets and purses for the correct card is a thing of the past for many Australian consumers. New payment innovations have been emerging, changing the way people pay. The popularity of mobile payments has steadily increased in Australia and around the world. According to Adyen-sponsored research, in 2023, 29% of Australian consumers prefer transacting with digital wallets online, and 21% prefer using QR codes.

One of the main contributors to this growing preference is the acceptance and usage amongst the younger generation – 62% of Australian customers aged 18 to 24 prefer transacting with digital wallets online. The convenience and ease of mobile payments means younger generations are increasingly choosing this option over other forms of payments. Often, customers just need to verify a mobile payment transaction with a password, fingerprint, facial recognition, or other verification method with their phone number, an action most consumers are now used to doing. Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) makes these transactions more secure than card payments, where identity verification isn't always required.

So, it's easier to pay and safer, too – mobile payments offer a secure and smooth experience that customers have come to expect from Australian businesses.

The term mobile payment system is a catch-all referring to any system that allows payments to happen away from a fixed terminal or desktop. This could mean an app from your favourite brand or a browser experience created for mobile – these enable customers to pay however they want to.

Browser-based payments refer to those completed while within the browser app. Optimising the mobile browser checkout can help reduce the churn often associated with mobile payments.

The adoption of in-app payments accelerated during COVID-19, with 20% of Australian consumers transacting with this payment method in the past year. It offers the most fluid and on-brand customer experience, allowing Australian businesses to build loyalty systems within the app.

Paying with a digital wallet in a physical store is also a type of mobile payment. Customers often utilise wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay™️ to checkout with ease. This payment type usually relies on near field communication (NFC) technology, allowing a store's point of sale (POS) terminal to securely gather the shopper's payment information via a mobile payment gateway.

Mobile POS (mPOS) are mobile payment devices that enable staff in physical stores to take payments anywhere within a wifi radius. These devices allow customers to avoid long lines and checkout seamlessly anywhere within a physical store. As our research indicates that only 24% of Australian businesses are utilising mPOS solutions, this is a great opportunity to invest in technology that enables you to build more seamless checkout flows.

The various technologies powering mobile payments are secure and widely adopted in Australia and across the world.

NFC technology Transacting via mobile payments often allows payments to be made without a physical card. NFC works as the connection between two devices close to one another. The phone, via a digital wallet, will connect with the store's POS terminal and complete the payment.

QR codes QR codes offer another means by which mobile payments can be made. Customers can scan the code with their phones to make payment.

Network tokens Network tokens help store and process the customer's payment data. This is made possible with tokenisation <link to https://www.adyen.com/knowledge-hub/payment-tokenization-guide>, which lets businesses capture and reuse card details via a secure and encrypted token, without storing sensitive payment data.

Pay by Link Pay by Link lets customers transact with a secure payment link hosted by Adyen and created by you. These links can be sent through different channels like social media, email, or a chat function, and they are the most accessible and quickest way to take your payments mobile.

Incu, a boutique Australian fashion retailer that stocks fashion-forward labels, introduced Pay by Link to their customers as a way to digitise and optimise their digital presence and payments systems. Their customers can now enjoy the flexibility of paying through a payment link from home, and arrange for delivery or stop by their stores to collect their purchases.

Mobile means convenience, and convenience is vital in today's economy. The more convenient and seamless it is for customers to pay, the greater the satisfaction, and the higher the likelihood of a successful conversion.

Revenue boost According to Adyen's Retail Report 2023, 61% of Australian consumers prefer shopping online, spurred on by convenience. Customers are thus more inclined to shop in mobile-efficient stores, leading to higher sales for mobile leaders.

Our research shows this – 63% of consumers in Australia have tried self-checkouts in physical stores, with less than 5% of them having a negative experience. Retailers offering contactless automation can expect a clear competitive advantage.

Happy customers Imagine abruptly cutting short a great in-store interaction as your customer is forced to stand in line to wait for payment. Having an mPOS solution means investing in customer and staff interactions that can keep going, creating shopping experiences that are more fun and seamless. 36% of Australian customers agree that they were happier with the shopping experiences enabled by innovations like mPOS, as it made shopping in stores faster.

Seamless loyalty programmes Lastly, businesses can turn transactions into loyal customers by connecting their loyalty program to customers' payment cards. Consumers can then earn points without additional cards or stamp booklets. Convenient.

Choosing the right mobile payment solution for your business will lead to a hike in both sales conversions and customer satisfaction. So, how do you choose the right partner to work with?

Adyen's single financial platform means you can manage your ecommerce sales, card acquiring, risk management, and a fleet of POS devices in one system. With everything connected, you can meet your customer at any part of their journey. They can order online, collect and return in store, and pay however they want. And you get to see all of their transactions in one place.