Disrupting the Contactless Payments Market in Australia

i2c just opened an office in Sydney, and we’re very bullish on Australia and New Zealand. So what makes Australia and New Zealand such a big market for innovative payment technologies? It’s because the region has historically driven innovation, motivating financial institutions and brands to deliver better commerce and payment experiences.

And there is no better example than the adoption of contactless. Recent growth of contactless, multi-currency, multi-function, and mobile solutions in Australia and New Zealand has clearly demonstrated that there’s a need for a platform with advanced digital and smartphone payment and commerce capabilities.

Australia and New Zealand are among the most important markets in the Asia Pacific, with consumers who are relatively more receptive and adaptive to changing technology. According to a 2014 study by Westpac, 60% of all debit card transactions in Australia are now contactless. This year alone, the estimated worth of transactions via contactless mobile payments in Australia will be nearly $3 billion, according to Westpac. These numbers will increase rapidly with widespread adoption of NFC-enabled smartphones. This makes it an interesting market and presents plenty of opportunities for innovative payment technology providers like i2c.

As contactless payments become more common, customer expectations will also evolve, and there will be a renewed focus on improving the overall customer experience through the payment process. Technology makes it possible to measure and improve the customer experience through every step of the purchase journey. Consumers will benefit from a seamless and secure payment mechanism that combines the features of prepaid and NFC. Retailers will see improved conversion and customer loyalty.

The challenge is for the payment processors to integrate and use the technology to provide solutions that improve the customer experience. It’s important today, more than ever, to have a flexible, cloud-based platform with global-ready capabilities (i.e. multicurrency and multi-lingual) that support swift launch of products around the world.

i2c has more than a decade of experience in delivering the best-in-class solutions worldwide through a single global platform that can be customized to create compelling commerce solutions suited for any region. It’s the incredibly flexible platform which allows us to integrate payment capabilities into any type of business process or use case a client has. Customers can pick and choose functionality to create the commerce experience that meets a specific market requirement. Coupled with a global track record of success and our customer service infrastructure, our platform gives us a huge advantage over our competitors. As I said while talking with PYMNTS.com, “We are keen to share the best practices we have gained from our successes in other markets.”