Mikko Seppä
June 23 2020
To stand out in the global competition, wholesale and retail companies need to tap into process and customer data and think about the value they can extract from analytics.
For manufacturers, true digital transformation starts by envisioning where in the value chain can data be applied to make a difference.
All public sector services should be designed to serve citizens first. Digital solutions and applications must be easy to use, despite physical and cognitive disabilities.
Digital processes and data-led services help energy and utility sector companies develop a stable energy offering with transparent, customer-centric services.
Shared platforms offer fast entry to new markets, cost-efficiently and scalably. But lasting value add comes from cross-industry collaboration and linking products with complimentary services.
Digitally disrupted, the companies in the banking, finance and insurance sector must actively innovate new approaches to build omnichannel customer experiences that fully utilize data.
While medical device software is strictly regulated, there's room for innovations that make life easier for patients and caregivers. Stable and secure data flow is a must.
June 23 2020
We believe that mobile payment methods will soon be completely replacing traditional payment cards. For years, Vincit has been paving the way for implementing mobile payment solutions. Our apps are already being used to pay for thousands of fast-food orders, car washes and parking every day. And what’s more, the users of these apps are loving the ease of not having to whip out their wallet for every small purchase.
Both Google and Apple offer their very own mobile payment methods, which are called Google Pay and Apple Pay, respectively. The idea is that the user first adds their payment card information to their mobile device’s wallet. After this, the card can be used for contactless payments in stores as well as for online and mobile purchases.
The biggest pros for these solutions are their excellent user experience and their security. This is how it works in practice: The user selects the product they wish to buy in the mobile app and then selects Apple Pay as the payment method. After this, the user simply confirms the purchase using their fingerprint or facial recognition.
This makes paying for purchases extremely fast and easy. There’s no need to fill in the payment card number or expiry date, and the payment doesn’t need to be confirmed using your online banking credentials thanks to strong biometric authentication. Neither does the user need to leave the app for completing the purchase – everything can be done within the app.
However, it’s good to be aware that not all banks currently support Google Pay or Apple Pay. For this reason, it’s advisable to include another alternative payment method in your app to make sure that all users have the possibility to make purchases.
In-app purchases are useful if your app uses virtual commodities. This means, for example, that payments can be made to unlock content, like new features in an app or new levels in a game. You should also note that, for example, in Apple devices, this is the only permitted way to sell virtual commodities, and there are no loopholes for this restriction.
Apple and Google take their own slice out of these transactions. The percentage varies slightly based on the product being purchased. Here’s an example for Apple: for one-time purchases, the commission is 30%, whereas for subscriptions, the commission is 30% for the first year and 15% for any subsequent continued subscriptions.
When in-app purchases are enabled in your app, buying is extremely easy for users. In practice, the user selects the product they wish to buy in the app and confirms the payment using their Apple or Google account. The purchase is later charged to their connected payment card.
Accepting payment cards is the most flexible way of enabling payments in apps. It offers a universal payment method that any user has access to, as long as they have a payment card in their pocket.
Payment card information can be added using the device’s camera. The user just focuses the camera on their payment card, and the card’s information is automatically updated into the app. This way the user gets to skip the cumbersome stage of manually entering the card number.
In many cases, the user’s payment information can be stored for later use, which means that they won’t need to re-enter the card information for recurring payments. This significantly improves the user experience and makes purchases faster and easier in the future.
We use reliable international payment service providers in our solutions, including Stripe, Braintree, and Checkout. They offer integration solutions and tools for transaction management. They also help make solutions scalable for future growth.
We have also prepared for the requirements for payment cards brought about by the European Union’s SPD2 directive. The new directive means that some online payments may require strong authentication. The required strong authentication is already enabled in many of our mobile apps.
Banks have also started to produce their own mobile payment solutions. MobilePay and Pivo are examples of such services currently in use in Finland. Generally, these solutions include a mobile app for which the user registers using their online banking credentials for authentication. The available features vary slightly between the different services. The most commonly available features include fast transactions to other users and online payments.
These solutions also enable payments in other mobile apps. The payment procedure usually works like this: The user selects the product they wish to buy in the app and selects the bank’s solution as the payment method. After this, the bank’s app opens up, and the user confirms the payment there. When the payment has been confirmed, the user is redirected to the original app.
You’re planning a new mobile app. There are many ways to enable mobile payments, and they all have their pros and cons. Usually, it’s not possible or even sensible to enable all the different options at once. Then how do you choose between the different payment methods? Here’s a handy checklist to make the decision a bit easier:
Would you like to learn more about this topic? Download the Everything you always wanted to know about buying mobile apps but were afraid to ask guide!
Download your free guide.
Ready to build something great? Our 15 years of experience mean we can handle any idea, big or small.