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Blog
Digital breadcrumbs: the impact of mobile payments
Daniel Batchelor
Global Head of Corporate Communications, Amadeus IT Group
For travellers, this carries the obvious benefit of having to draw out less foreign currency whilst abroad. More importantly, though, it means that every payment comes with a record of “who, when, and where” and that an integrated memory of payments can be built up over time.
Over the next decade, payment and identity will be linked more closely as digital currency replaces cash. Contactless mobile payment will make it possible to ‘touch and pay’ for items, beating debit and credit cards for convenience.
It will create another way to record and recall places and activities. Travellers will, potentially, be able to browse the ‘digital breadcrumbs’ of payments as a layer of metadata attached to maps, photos, videos and social networking sites.
For the travel provider, digital breadcrumbs are likely to become an important CRM and customer-profiling tool. In the same way that supermarkets use loyalty cards to learn about the needs and wants of different customer groups, businesses could offer a better, more personalised experience based on information provided by mobile data, particularly payments.
A note of caution should be sounded. Data from our report suggests growing global concern that personal data will be misused or stolen – particularly amongst older people.
It’s logical, therefore, to conclude that mobile payments will supplement rather than replace coins and notes in 2020 and beyond.
Would you be willing to give up your cash and credit cards in lieu of an all in one integrated mobile payment solution?