A billion new users or a billion exposures to risk. Which shall it be?
Trust is the key that unlocks adoption of digital payments and competitive advantage. However, understanding it, designing for it, and managing it is complicated. This holds true both for financial service providers and other companies seeking to digitize payments.
When undergoing digital transformation, companies must ensure that trust is embedded systemically across processes and the entire supply chain.
The Principles highlight key opportunities for companies to seize.
Back to the PrinciplesCompanies’ detailed knowledge of their own supply chains can be unleashed when designing new products. These insights be shared with the ecosystem to support the adoption of digital payments among underserved segments. Companies are best placed to accelerate outreach to the last mile.
Prospective users fear loss of funds when transitioning to digital payments. Companies can acknowledge the proportionally greater risk assumed by low-income users and empower their supply chain to ensure that user funds are always safe and accessible. User funds – and valuable user data – must be safeguarded.
At the heart of successful design lies an empathic understanding of the consumer’s needs. Deploying this knowledge at the design stage builds in utility, efficacy, speed and experiential delight. Companies can work to understand the lived realities of marginalized groups to inform unique design and marketing decisions that confer a competitive edge.
The structural way to prohibit inappropriately designed, built or marketed products is to advocate for gender-disaggregated data in their partnership with financial service providers and include women’s voices at every stage. A successful company’s gender lens is elective. Competitive advantage can be secured by successfully including the billion women who remain underserved by digital payments.
To onboard the next billion digital payment users, companies are strongly placed to build transparency and accountability across the supply chain to protect and enable users. They can provide incentives for distributors and merchants, such as discounts, store credit and value-added services to encourage user-focused behavior. Trusted brands outperform the competition. It is recommended to work closely with FSPs to improve accountability.
Companies can explore innovative solutions to address women’s unequal access to connectivity, identity and digital and financial capability. They might also support partnerships that create economic opportunities for women and include them in value chains. Prospective users can find access to additional services through digital payments compelling.