Prepaid early adopters will gain competitive advantage says epay
epay has urged businesses to demand more from prepaid, driving the industry so that it solves problems across a broad range of sectors.
Speaking at Prepaid – 2011 Conference and Expo in London, epay MD Paul Bartholomew-Keen predicted a future in which consumers will demand more convenient ways to pay, with the most innovative businesses adapting to steal competitive advantage.
In a presentation entitled ‘Prepaid – Tomorrow’s World’, epay identified the lack of consumer understanding around prepaid, with many believing the term applies to mobile top up only. “Very few of the consumers we spoke to realised that they already use prepaid, for example through an Oyster card, or even the earliest form of prepaid- the postage stamp,” said Bartholomew-Keen. “This does present a challenge to businesses, but consumers are always looking for secure and efficient ways to pay, and it’s up to us to highlight the benefits of prepaid to them.”
Earlier this year the Global Prepaid Exchange, a membership body for the industry, predicted that 2011 would be the ‘year of prepaid’ as new technology and innovations from the sector would often make prepaid a better payment option than the alternatives (in terms of safety and convenience). epay have similar predictions for the future. “We have to constantly innovate to ensure new product development matches not only what people want now, but what they will want in future,” said Bartholomew-Keen. “We believe payment will join the convergence revolution with phones, cameras and PCs. In future, payment will be made by embedded chips and pressing buttons, not using cards or cash, in fact one day I think we’ll all be using e-wallets, first in cash dominated environments but eventually the adoption will spread wider.”
epay said it had “significant expansion plans” in order to be one of the ‘early adopters’ described in the presentation.
Bartholomew-Keen said: “We plan to get a lot closer to other business sectors, so we understand their challenges and how we can solve them, whilst listening to what consumers want. We’re looking forward to launching a range of innovative new products this year that meet demand and support the widespread adoption and understanding of prepaid. There is a lot of potential yet to be realised.”
