The 4th Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0, is characterized by digital and physical technology, with technological characteristics such as analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These developing technologies are bringing about radical economic development and societal change. Digitalized innovations have replaced established traditions, resulting in organizations adapting to the evolving environment to re-evaluate their business strategies to strengthen their tenuous positions, regardless of the risk and uncertainty.
The demands of consumerism
The current business and FinTech atmosphere is constantly disrupted because of these emerging technologies and innovative advancements. As such, consumerism demands advanced and innovative products and services for these developments. The overall industry is responsive and resilient in reaction to the disruptions. However, the transformational digital wallet is one constant throughout these digital and physical disruptions.
Saving the environment by replacing plastic with clouds
The digital wallet is slowly replacing the plasticity of credit cards, debit cards, and paper. Its evolution continues to expand its capacity and its ability to incorporate more time-saving, efficient, and effective devices that reciprocate integrated payments with real-time communications of any data located in the cloud. This cloud-based immediacy gives consumers and merchants the opportunity and promises to advance technologically with accuracy and speed, combined in a singular, convenient platform. This platform incorporates advertising, payments, shipping, and search functions with consumer service and loyalty programs. Moreover, the platform offers consumers a more accessible and efficient way to transact while offering traditional brick-and-mortar retailers an eCommerce-type ability to identify, attract, and retain customers.
Digital wallets aren’t dumb; they’re smart
Due to their smart nature, digital wallets can trigger adverse shifts for both the consumer and the merchant.
For the consumer, these shifts are located in the applicable legality of the actual virtual transaction, increasing the risk of fraud and the potential of confusion while exposing the consumer to unnecessary issues and invading their transactional privacy. These concerns are not often salient for the consumer as they cannot differentiate between wallets and what they [individually] offer. Because of this, the consumer needs financial and legislative protection to ensure minimal digital wallet standards. Youtap has a white-label, cloud-based solution for the individual that decreases any potential risk.
For the merchant, digital wallets can divest [in]valuable customer information used in advertising, anti-fraud campaigns, customer service, and loyalty purposes. Digital wallets can facilitate the poaching of customers by their competitors, subsequently impairing the merchant-customer relationship and increasing the risk of fraud, potentially leading the merchant to pass on [extra] transactional costs to cover their liabilities. Furthermore, this constrains merchants in their [in] ability to refuse to make [conditional] payments from a digital wallet based on the risks propagated by traditional, plastic credit and debit card networks.
Easy solutions to complex problems
As an established Infrastructure FinTech and provider of cloud-based financial services software, Youtaps’ white-labeled digital wallet has tailor-made consumer and merchant features. As digital wallet usage has increased for both parties, Youtap has kept up with its increasing demands, ensuring its position in the fintech ecosystem as an innovator. They provide real-time transactions, the issue that many in the industry see as the core concern of both the customer and the merchant. Youtap also provides extensive payment processing and integration, simple solutions that enable banks, retailers, and payment processors to centralize their payment processing and aggregation networks.
Consumerism continues to demand much from both the consumer and the retailer. Somewhere in between are the banks and the service providers. Wherever any operative is positioned, the digital wallet will continue to evolve and keep pace with the 4th Industrial Revolution, seamlessly easing the issues of payments and processing while adapting to an ever-changing financial ecosystem and societal landscape.
