Bottomline Technologies Chips In Its 2019 Mobile Payments Predictions

We’ve heard from several corners so far about the upcoming year in mobile payments, and the predictions have run the gamut. Now, we’ve got a fresh set of five, specifically sent our way from Bottomline Technologies’ CEO Rob Eberle. What he’s got to say about mobile payments in 2019 is something you’ll want to keep an eye on.

Eberle’s predictions start out fairly sedate. First, Eberle expects the business-to-business (B2B) market to get much more involved with mobile payments. We’ve already seen this somewhat, but this is the year that should take off if Eberle is right. Look for travel services especially to benefit here as business travel elements from hotels to flights to ridesharing gains ground.

Next, Eberle looks for fraud to continue to improve. Eberle also looks for the converse to occur, in that protection methods will get likewise stronger and more robust, including things like machine learning systems to help spot unusual patterns before they become illicit charges.

Eberle expects businesses will demand more from their mobile payments systems, including tools designed to help with liquidity planning like the ability to spot where both incoming and outgoing payments are currently placed in the system.

Big data will play a huge role in the coming months, as more and more companies, Eberle projects, will turn to analytics to put their currently-available data to use analyzing customer behavior patterns. This should yield better customer service and fraud prevention. Finally, Eberle also looks for the paper check to continue to decline in use over the next five years for the corporate user.

Eberle has taken the safe route with his predictions, building on previously-established trends and expecting the trend lines to continue as seen previously. You’ll never see anyone predict that mobile fraudsters will go get real jobs, or that the paper check will come back in vogue because everyone loves it so very much. We’ve already seen the business mobile payments platform kick up, as even Uber recently expanded its “for business” arm. The Chinese are delivering Starbucks to offices now, paid for with mobile payments.

Eberle hasn’t advanced anything particularly revolutionary here, but when the ball drops to bring in 2020, he’ll likely be right with most of these.