Although the idea of cashless payments was articulated and explored in pre-1900 utopian literature, it has taken more than 100 years to put the concept from paper to practice. In this 21st century, technology took the responsibility for carrying out cash related payments with the help of systems that support such transactions.

The past decade has seen a monumental shift in physical to digital payments, enabling retailers to carry out easy transaction of payment for the purchase. It has also played a significant role in helping retailers to deal with their customer in the best way possible. Being a popular and widely used payment transaction, Mobile payments are transforming the ways customers are purchasing the products across various ecommerce channels.

Emergence of Mobile Wallets
In the mobile payment technology, Mobile Wallet is one of the fastest growing trends. This enabled the customer to carry digital cash in their digital wallet, so that they can pay digitally. The tide of digitalisation in India has been momentous in popularising this trend due to its speed, convenience and security for customers. Mobile wallet payments that accounted for only USD 75 billion in 2016 is forecast to reach USD 500 billion in 2020, which represents an annual growth of over 80 percent in 5 years.

Mobile Payment Gateways
When technology started accommodating payment support systems through mobile, it was the sign of a drastic change in which people carry out payments. Today, a number of mobile payment applications have started their services availing different modes of payment options despite what bank the customer holds. Mobile payment gateways like ApplePay, GooglePay, PayPal etc. works on credit card or debit card information provided by the customer that makes a direct link with the user’s bank account.

Mobile Point of Sale – mPOS is on the rise that could help in replicating the traditional cash register and sale terminals. mPOS allows a wireless, easy, and space saving way for merchants to accept payments. It enables the merchants to finalise the transaction wherever the customers are. The one which is pioneering in this sector is Apple stores. Customers are provided with the option to carry out the transaction with the employee rather than at the cash counter.

According to the trend, the future of mobile payment is expected to be dominated by mobile wallets and mobile Point of Sale devices. Moreover, in the coming years we could witness mobile payments with automated payment capabilities.