The UK’s payments and fintech market has been at the forefront of innovation for the past decade, but in order to remain competitive in an increasingly diverse global sector, it has to embrace new methods or be at risk of being left behind.
One of the leading point-of-sale payment companies in the world, Ingenico, has been an active entity in the UK market for over 30 years and in speaking to Payment Expert, the company’s Managing Director, EMEA, José Luis Arias, revealed the three emerging trends he believes will shape UK payments throughout the rest of the year.
Arias also spoke on what some of Ingenico’s partners feedback is when it comes to customers’ preferred payment methods, as well as the potential the UK has in a changing regulatory landscape.
Payment Expert: Firstly Jose Luis. What challenges/opportunities present itself when handling operations across EMEA?
José Luis Arias: I think the greatest opportunities have to do with the fact that we have 1,500 employees in Europe, which gives us an unparalleled footprint in terms of software, solutions and operations.
We are able to provide a truly homogeneous, comprehensive, top level support to our customers across Europe, with more than 16 offices in the region. This does not come without challenges, however, after many years of leading in Europe, it has become a competitive advantage.
PE: With a strong focus on the UK market, have yourself and Ingenico identified any new, emerging trends in the country last year when it pertains to customer payment preferences and acceptance?
JLA: I think the major trends that we see are basically three:
1. The increased use of wallets as payment initiation on the consumer side, which couples with the relentless growth of contactless payments.
2. The rapid growth of SoftPOS, which by the way, we experience firsthand in the evolution of the Ingenico SoftPOS.
3. The growth of embedded payments, brought about very much by independent software vendors and fintechs’ growth.
PE: Having many largescale retail merchant partners, how often is Ingenico in discussion with these partners in the UK when it comes to feedback on payment behaviour from their customers?
JLA: Not just with retail merchant partners, but also with banks, acquirers, fintechs, ISVs and unattended integrators. With all of them we are in very close contact, as we believe this is the best way to truly understand customer needs.
Apart from meetings, we are present in different sector events and we launched our own partner event, Paytech, which is an excellent way to connect and obtain valuable information and have a two communication route with our main customers and partners
PE: How has SoftPOS developed over the years in the UK? What new solutions will this payment method afford both merchants and customers?
JLA: SoftPOS is showing rapid growth in the UK market. Having acquired Phos two years ago, and now with Ingenico SoftPOS, we are observing very rapid growth and we believe we are just scratching the surface.
Being a technology that runs on non EMV devices, it opens the door to convert any iOS or Android device into a payment terminal. This, depending on the vertical, is experiencing different adoption rates. For instance, the courier vertical, equipped with PDAs, and the escorted salesmen, often equipped with tablets, are seeing an intensive use of SoftPOS.
PE: BNPL has been an e-commerce success, but what about its impact at physical terminals in the UK? Is there growth to be made in this respect?
JLA: Yes, definitely. We are seeing increased growth. BNPL solves a financing problem in a convenient way for the consumer. We see a bright future for the in-store use of BNPL as long as the customer journey is smooth and agile. Through our Appstore M360, it is easy to integrate a BNPL application as an alternative payment method in our Axium Android devices, ensuring a smooth payment flow.
PE: The UK government has merged the Payment Systems Regulator with the Financial Conduct Authority. As an active payments leader in the country, will this be seen as a positive or negative, and is there such a thing as overregulation?
JLA: I believe regulators need to strike a balance between protecting the rights of the different stakeholders and users in the business, in turn, establishing the obligations that support those rights, ensuring that regulation is timely and aligned with the reality of business, and finally promoting regulation that does not hinder innovation and the running of everyday business.
We cannot forget that payments is a global business, so inadequate regulation can damage the evolution of the sector in the country. In this sense, proper consultation with key sector players is critical to ensure regulation is fit for purpose.
PE: Lastly Jose Luis, and thank you for your time, what are the methods you believe retailers in the UK should focus on in 2025 to optimise the customer checkout journey?
JLA: I would highlight two, which are innovative. The first one is SoftPOS, which will increase the number of payment acceptance points, promote escorted sales, serve as queue buster and backup of fixed systems.
The second one is the ability to bring value added services on payment devices. There is a growing interest in offering advertising, of own retailer or third-party, on the payment device, specially the large screen pinpads.
Finally, whatever solutions retailers choose, they need to be robust, secure and reliable.
