ETA-sponsored study identifies top payments tech trends for 2018

The recently released IDC Market Spotlight, Payments Trends to Watch in 2018, sponsored by the Electronic Transactions Association, highlights new channels, networks and opportunities for the acquiring community. In particular, the report details five major trends in payment technology that are expected to drive discussion at the ETA's Transact tradeshow, which will take place in Las Vegas from April 17 to 19, 2018.

The five trends explored in the report are:

1. The new channels: voice, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things ‒ "In the next 24 months, IDC forecasts 30 billion devices will be connected to the Internet," the ETA stated. "2018 will bring a serious discussion on how merchants and their vendors will contend with new channels – voice-enabled commerce through in-home devices, chatbots initiating payments on social networks, and connected devices managing purchasing decisions and payments."

2. The 'Point of Interaction': the changing state of the POS ‒ "IDC forecasts that U.S. merchants will spend nearly $1.7 billion on POS hardware in each of the next two years," the ETA said. "The continued evolution of the point of sale (POS) remains important in 2018 as large retailers look to their POS to handle more than the transaction, and small retailers seek powerful, integrated, competitively priced POS options."

3. Software as the new hardware ‒ According to the study, the POS is "becoming a point of connection to a marketplace of applications and software that go beyond payment acceptance. The IDC Market Spotlight finds that U.S. merchants will spend $2.2 billion in 2018, and $2.4 billion in 2019, on POS software alone."

4. Evolving transmission networks ‒ IDC found that 2018 will see an increased focus on new payments networks to carry transaction volume and on financial institutions upgrading their systems. "IDC predicts that banks in the U.S. alone will spend nearly $5 billion on the effort, including hardware, software and IT services in the next two years," the ETA stated.

5. Security: innovation to support new tools ‒ "U.S. vendors are planning to spend $1 billion on security software this year, according to IDC," the ETA noted. "The payments industry has a chance to introduce new tools and technologies to meet the growing cybersecurity and fraud threats that merchants face online and in-store."

"The financial institutions, networks, payment processors and FinTechs powering payments are using new interfaces and better security to drive commerce for consumers and retailers," stated Jason Oxman, CEO of the ETA. "As the trade association of the payments technology industry, ETA will use this research report to focus in 2018 on creating new opportunities for partnerships that integrate payments and technology."

To receive a copy of IDC Market Spotlight, Payments Trends to Watch in 2018, contact ETA Director of Communications Laura Hubbard at lhubbard@electran.org .

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