Top Payment Trends to Watch this Festive Season

1. The takeover of mobile wallets

This year, more Aussies than ever will leave their physical wallets at home when they head out to do their Christmas shopping. Consider the following three statistics:

• In 2022, 30% of in-person card payments were made via mobile devices, up from 10% in 2019. Source: Reserve Bank of Australia
• Over 15.3 million cards were registered to mobile wallets in 2022, a 760% increase from 2018. Source: Australian Banking Association.
• A 2022 survey revealed that 69% of Australians felt confident enough using mobile wallets to leave their physical wallets at home. Source: Marqeta

If we piece those three stats together, it’s clear to see the shift away from physical cards, and towards mobile wallet payments, is continuing to pick up speed.

Make sure your business is set up for seamless electronic payment acceptance, whether your customers are tapping with their card or mobile wallet. Zeller Terminal equips your business to accept physical cards as well as mobile payments via smartphones and smartwatches. 

2. Selling via social

From Instagram and TikTok offering in-app shopping experiences to businesses selling solely via Facebook Marketplace and Instagram DMs, social platforms have become key places for payments to take place.

Payment Links, which are built right into Zeller Virtual Terminal, are perfect for  businesses selling on social media. This handy tool lets you easily generate a secure, clickable payment link that you can simply send to your customers in a DM.

We’ve seen many innovative artisan businesses utilising Payment Links to sell quickly and easily via social media, without the need for a permanent, e-commerce enabled website. Instagram or Facebook Marketplace + Payment LInks will help set you up for success, too.

3. Enhanced fraud protection

They might call it the silly season, but with the sophistication of fraudsters these days, you don’t have to be silly to be scammed this Christmas. Thankfully, the payments world is fighting back with advanced fraud detection tools, including AI-powered analytics and biometric authentication.

For shoppers, this means increased protection of their funds, and for businesses it means fewer chargebacks and losses.

Learn more about how Zeller keeps you and your customers safe here.

4. Accepting payments via Tap to Pay 

Turning a smartphone into a payment terminal can be a game-changer for small businesses. Tap to Pay works on selected iPhone and Android smartphones, making it super simple to take payments wherever you are with just a mobile app, or even to use as a second EFTPOS machine when things get busy.

While Tap to Pay is still an emerging innovation in payments, we’re already seeing many mobile businesses adopt it as a way to accept payments in lieu of sending online invoices or carrying an EFTPOS terminal with them at all times. 

5. The inexorable rise of self-checkout

As we move into 2025 and beyond, expect to see more self-service kiosks, from fast food restaurants through to airports, department stores, supermarkets, universities… you name it.

Couple this with QR codes on pub tables and cafe menus, one thing is clear – love it or hate it, self-checkout is only going to become increasingly common. With advancements in self-checkout technology making it easier for smaller businesses to set up a kiosk too, we’re looking forward to seeing this innovative new technology in a wider variety of scenarios.  

If you’d like some expert advice on setting up your business with the right payment and POS solutions for this festive season and beyond, speak to the Zeller Sales team.