Digital mobile payments are fast becoming the payment method of choice worldwide. They’re easy, convenient and fast, and they facilitate the exchange of goods and services in cash-based economies where many people do not have access to traditional bank accounts.
Plus, as more and more people invest in crypto coins, digital mobile payments provide ways to buy, spend and exchange crypto for more liquid assets like mobile airtime and data.
You can benefit from the economic shift towards digital and crypto by enabling digital payments for your customers.
In this article, we’ll explain what you need to know about digital payments, exchanging crypto, and how you can incorporate this into an offering for your customers.
With Reloadly, you can offer your users the ability to send and receive digital goods, such as Airtime, Data Bundles and Gift Cards, in exchange for cryptocurrency. Get your Reloadly keys to open up a world of borderless, contactless and secure crypto payments.
Digital mobile payment statistics
Digital payment is a broad term that could include any electronic payment method, from contactless debit cards to online transactions.
Essentially, digital payments happen whenever money is transferred digitally or online, and no physical exchange of cash takes place.
This began with credit and debit cards and contactless payments. As technology evolves, digital mobile payments are growing at an incredible rate in every country.
In China, 87.3% of the population now uses digital payment methods, according to Cullen International’s Global Trends research. The same report also found:
- There were 4.92 trillion e-commerce sales worldwide in 2021
- Mobile wallets are the preferred payment method in the Asia-Pacific region and are expected to make up 47.9% of payments by 2024.
- Globally, mobile payments are predicted to grow at a rate of 23.8% between 2021 and 2026
Meanwhile, in Africa, digital payment wallets provide a convenient alternative to cash. Africa’s domestic e-payments market predicts revenue growth of 20% per year and could hit $40 billion by 2025.
Benefits of digital mobile payments
The switch to digital payment has plenty of benefits for both businesses and consumers, for example:
- Security — Paying via mobile phone requires authentication like a password, fingerprint or face identification.
- Access — Digital wallets give people in emerging economies greater access to financial services. Even without a bank account, people can use digital wallets and buy and sell goods using airtime as money.
- Financial inclusion — People who previously relied on cash can now place their funds in an online bank without needing to visit a physical branch.
- Economic boost — Local economies run more smoothly when people have more straightforward ways to pay for goods and services.
- Flexibility — Mobile wallets can store currency, crypto coins, gift cards, loyalty points, coupons and even identification documents and tickets.
It may seem that some parts of the world are becoming cashless societies. However, there are some downsides to digital mobile payments that make people hesitant to rely entirely on digital money.
- Privacy concerns — Digital transactions are much more easily traceable. This may lead some people to have privacy concerns.
- Fraud – Digital transactions are protected however, if a mobile wallet or online banking system was hacked, this could result in a significant data leak of sensitive information.
- Restrictions — If you only have digital money, it can be difficult to access your funds if you lose your phone or computer or forget your passwords.
- Freedom — Some may worry that going cashless could give governments too much control over people’s finances.
Mobile payments aren’t without risk. But, despite some downsides, it seems likely that future generations will fully adopt the “cashless” approach and rely primarily on digital money.
The rise of cryptocurrency
As of 2022, there are an estimated 320 million crypto users worldwide (roughly 4.2% of the population). The total value of all cryptocurrencies is about $950 million.
Though it accounts for about 7% of the world’s money, cryptocurrency is far from being mainstream. But, it could become a significant or even dominant part of the global economy in years to come.
As crypto ownership grows, retailers and businesses are opening up to the possibility of accepting crypto as currency. These days you can buy more and more things with crypto – but it remains much less liquid and exchangeable compared to fiat currency.
The pros and cons of cryptocurrency
Despite its reputation as risky and volatile, crypto is one of the safest methods of transferring money internationally. The risk of fraud is much lower than with credit and debit cards.
Although the value of cryptocurrency fluctuates, this mainly affects people who want to store wealth in crypto or earn income from investing in crypto coins. There’s no significant impact on people conducting digital mobile payments, buying and selling goods or sending money domestically or internationally.
The main problem with crypto is that it is not very liquid. Exchanging crypto for other assets or mainstream currency can be complicated and expensive, but this will get easier as more people adopt crypto and it becomes more mainstream.
For now, crypto holders turn to cryptocurrency exchanges to trade crypto coins for conventional money, other digital currencies or digital assets like mobile airtime and data.
Crypto has the potential to fuel more international money transfers. Mobile airtime and data top-ups are increasingly transferred across borders, and the phone credits are then exchanged for money through peer-to-peer transactions. This is a fast, convenient and cost-effective solution for global remittances.
Why you should enable bitcoin and crypto exchanges
Apps can overcome the main hurdle of cryptocurrency – liquidity – by enabling bitcoin and crypto exchanges using a digital mobile payment API.
Here are some of the benefits of using a digital mobile payment API:
- Makes crypto easier — You’ll allow people to move crypto around more fluidly. As well as helping individuals spend their assets, this will contribute to broader acceptance, use and recognition of cryptocurrency as a legitimate source of value.
- Opens up new markets — As previously mentioned, digital mobile payments are widely used in emerging markets. Airtime, mobile top-ups and data bundles are also used transactionally. By offering to exchange crypto for these digital goods, you can open your services to many more markets.
- Provide services to crypto holders — People who own cryptocurrencies may need ways to spend those assets on transferable goods. By accepting cryptocurrency, you can provide services to them.
- Profit from bulk purchases — You can buy bulk airtime with Reloadly at a heavily discounted price. You can then resell to your customers at an attractive price and still make a good profit.
There are many different ways to offer customers exchanges for cryptocurrency. Using Reloadly’s API, you can allow customers to exchange airtime, data bundles, gift cards and rewards for cryptocurrency.
Use Reloadly’s API for Bitcoin, crypto and digital mobile payments
With Reloadly’s API, crypto exchanges can enable their users to send and receive digital goods such as airtime, data bundles and gift cards. Your customers can buy and sell gift cards and top-up phones using Bitcoin. This provides a new way of making borderless, contactless digital mobile payments that are secure.
Using our API, you can offer your customers an affordable and potentially profitable exchange for cryptocurrency.
You can even offer rewards and loyalty programs in cryptocurrency. Rewards programs based on blockchain technology can bring customers back to the store, track points and verify customer identities and protect them from fraud.
Reloadly’s platform offers a simple alternative to complex coding.
You can set up an API or widget to start providing cryptocurrency solutions. Contact us if you need help setting up, but it only takes three simple steps:
- Sign up for Reloadly for free – no contract needed
- Get your API keys from the Reloadly portal
- Integrate our API, then add balance to your wallet to go live.
Start allowing your customers to send and receive digital goods such as Airtime, Data Bundles and Gift Cards, in exchange for cryptocurrency.
Get your Reloadly keys to open up a world of borderless, contactless and secure crypto payments.
