BFSI Payments: Trends to Watch in 2024

As more consumers get access to mobile phones, the Internet, and bank accounts, the potential for revolutionizing sales revenues has skyrocketed.

As of October 2023, two-thirds of the world’s total population used mobile phones, with the number of unique mobile phone users reaching 5.60 billion, while 5.30 billion people around the world had access to the Internet. Financial inclusion drives are also enabling more consumers to open bank accounts and join the formal banking ecosystem. 

The BFSI payments domain is capitalizing on these growth trends by innovating to put more flexibility, convenience, and affordability in the hands of consumers. 

By integrating superior yet cost-effective payment technology into the shopping experience, businesses can benefit by nudging customers to shop as per their lifestyle needs and cash flows. They can attract new customer demographics, reduce customer acquisition costs, and drive revenue growth.  

This blog explores five BFSI payment trends, which can benefit merchants by giving them a competitive edge if implemented with the right technology. 

5 BFSI Payments Trends For 2024 

Today, innovative payment technology is making the checkout experience more efficient, inclusive, and secure for online and offline shoppers. Here’s a look at why businesses must capitalize on this shift.  

1. Growth of Embedded finance

Traditionally, shoppers would need to apply for a personal loan to make a big-ticket purchase. For instance, it could be to purchase a refrigerator, round-trip airline tickets, festival gifts, or all three and beyond.

The process took effort and time. There was also no guarantee that the loan would be approved by the bank in time to snag attractive shopping deals. 

Embedded finance is flipping this narrative by enabling customers to take loans at the point of sale and make timely purchases. During the checkout process, they can select their EMI value, tenure, and interest rate of choice, get instant approvals from the relevant financial service provider, and proceed to make a purchase. 

The benefit for businesses is that they get paid upfront, while customers can access loans conveniently and quickly. These two actions help drive sales revenue. They inspire customer loyalty and repeat sales. 

2. Rise of the Affordability suite 

Today, affordability is an important factor in customer decision-making during the shopping process. When customers can pay for a purchase without overextending their wallets, they can make timely purchases and benefit from opportunities such as exclusive deals on products and services. 

A superior payment gateway enables customers to reap the benefits of a wide range of affordability options. These include Buy Now Pay Later, zero-interest and low-cost EMIs, cashback opportunities, exclusive discounts and offers, and Debit Card and Credit Card EMIs. With so many solutions to choose from, customers have the power of choice when it comes to affordability, and they can choose the most relevant option for themselves.  

From B2C and B2B to D2C brands, businesses offering a comprehensive affordability suite can benefit in several ways. They experience higher conversions, growing customer reach, an increase in the average ticket size of customer purchases, reduced cart abandonment, reduced customer acquisition costs, and higher revenues. 

3. Omni-Channel Approach With Payment Links 

Today, a growing number of customers prefer to shop in their favourite engagement channels. For instance, these can include messaging apps, social media platforms, and email. 

While businesses are building their digital footprint on these channels and platforms, they struggle with the payment process due to the lack of a secure, seamless payment interface. Either the customer did not proceed to make a purchase, or they experienced a poor payment experience, which reduced trust and repeat purchases. 

However, today, innovative BFSI payment technology is effectively addressing the issue. Merchants can now offer mobile-friendly payment links in any channel of their choice. The links take customers to a secure interface and enable a simplified, seamless payment experience, which is completed within seconds.  

Payments links technology enables businesses to adopt an omni-channels marketing strategy along with secure payments, thus closing the shopping loop with a sale. 

4. Brand EMIs Fueling Revenues 

Branded products come with a certain aspirational value that can help merchants drive sales, provided they find new and innovative ways to leverage brand equity. Brand EMIs are one such opportunity where merchants can combine exclusive deals on branded products with attractive, flexible brand-specific EMIs. 

Smart use of superior payment technology enables merchants to experiment with various permutations and combinations and come up with unique Brand EMI payment options. 

Customers will be able to shop for their favourite brands at attractive price points, combined with a flexible EMI scheme, which aligns with their cash flows. Brands EMIs are a win-win for brands, merchants, and customers. 

5. The Cardless EMI Revolution  

As more consumers enter the formal banking ecosystems for the first time, businesses are looking to capture these audiences and convert them into customers. While opening a bank account is easy, accessing credit cards is still an inaccessible product for many. This is where Cardless EMIs are filling in the payment credit gaps. 

This payment option enables consumers with a bank account to access an EMI at the point of sale. They can choose a relevant cardless EMI structure, get instant approvals from their bank, and proceed to make a purchase. By offering this payment option, merchants can attract new consumer demographics, bring down customer acquisition costs, and drive revenues. 

The Takeaway 

Trends such as the growth of embedded finance, the affordability suite, payment links, band EMIs, and cardless EMIs are enabling businesses to capture new markets and drive revenues. Merchants benefit because no customer is turned away due to lack of a payment flexibility. In turn, they can expect fewer abandoned shopping carts, greater customer lifetime value, and purchases of a higher ticket size.   

Ensuring a seamless user experience is the key to capitalizing on these ground-breaking BFSI payment opportunities. Merchants can partner with a payments technology specialist offering cutting-edge solutions such as a robust EMI engine, which enables omnichannel shopping and facilitates easy integration of embedded finance. 

Plural Gateway, a comprehensive, inclusive payments gateway, enables merchants to incorporate the full spectrum of affordability options into the shopping experience. From cardless, card, and brand EMIs and payment links to Buy Now Pay Later, customers can make payments as per their lifestyle needs and cash flows. 

Plural by Pine Labs comes with a specially equipped product suite for BFSI industries that makes menial tasks such as payments, underwriting, loan disbursal and collection easy. Check out out myriad of offerings which include state-of-the-art solutions like UPI autopay, 100+ payment modes, etc.

Plural Gateway also comes backed with industry-standard security systems to protect customer data. With Plural Gateway, businesses can access a hassle-free integration experience and round-the-clock tech support. To learn more about Plural Gateway, write to us at pgsupport@pinelabs.com. 

Plural by Pine Labs has received an in-principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator.