As the e-commerce landscape grows increasingly complex, with more and more ways to pay and different preferences for different groups of consumers, keeping up can be challenging. And yet, the more rapidly these technologies evolve, the more important it is for merchants to stay abreast of the changes and respond quickly.

Payment management is pivotal to creating fast, easy and secure customer experiences. Doing that requires a clear understanding of your audience’s payment preferences, paired with the ability to quickly offer the payment types that your customers want.

According to Steve Chase, management consulting leader at KPMG U.S., “Firms that focus on the customer experience while bringing automation, speed and agility to the back office will be well-positioned to respond to market dynamics.[1]”

Focusing on the customer experience to gain new customers and build loyalty means offering seamless payment capabilities that enable consumers to pay across channels and devices, as well as through local and preferred payment types.

Alternative payment types are growing in popularity

Customer payment preferences differ based on factors like geography, socioeconomics and age or generation. In emerging global markets such as China and Mexico, for example, double-digit percentages of online shoppers prefer alternative payment methods like digital wallets[2]. Digital wallets have become one of the most popular payment methods worldwide among card alternatives, accounting for nearly a third of global e-commerce sales in 2017[3]. They’re projected to continue to grow in use through 2020, while traditional card payments decline[4].

The increase in the popularity of alternative payments hardly makes card payments obsolete, though. Card payments remain the most used method in many well-established markets, such as the U.S., Canada, Australia and France[5]. This means that consumers’ preferred payment types will continue to become more diversified, which in turn requires merchants to offer a diverse set of payment types tailored to the unique preferences of each customer segment.

Successful global companies are able to quickly add new payment types based on customer preferences

The need to add and replace payment types based on customer preferences means that merchants should be able to act quickly to remain competitive. According to a recent McKinsey & Company report, one thing that leading companies do differently from the rest is, “exercise a high level of strategic response to digital change.[6]”

Given the rapid pace of technological change, merchants should use agile payment management solutions that enable them to adapt quickly. From managing risk in different countries without damaging the customer experience to accepting sales through alternative methods, an agile payment management platform is critical to keeping pace with new technology to succeed on a global scale.

The CyberSource payment management platform is designed to give companies the ability to adapt quickly in a range of areas, from global expansion to mobile commerce, fraud management and security. To learn how CyberSource solutions simplify complexity, improve the customer experience and reduce risk— and to learn more about payment trends in each of those areas, check out our resource hub, .

[1] KPMG, “Now or Never: CEOs Mobilize for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” U.S. CEO Outlook 2016, kpmg.com/us/ceooutlook

[2] yStats.com, “Global Online Alternative Payment Methods,” 2017,  https://www.ystats.com/market-reports/global-alternative-online-payment-methods-second-half-2016-2/

[3] yStats.com, “Global Online Alternative Payment Methods,” 2017,  https://www.ystats.com/market-reports/global-alternative-online-payment-methods-second-half-2016-2/

[4] yStats.com, “Global Online Alternative Payment Methods,” 2017,  https://www.ystats.com/market-reports/global-alternative-online-payment-methods-second-half-2016-2/

[5] yStats.com, “Global Online Alternative Payment Methods,” 2017,  https://www.ystats.com/market-reports/global-alternative-online-payment-methods-second-half-2016-2/

[6] McKinsey & Company, “The Case for Digital Reinvention,” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2017, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-case-for-digital-reinvention