Why providing consumers with the best mobile payments experience is a must

Consumers around the world are more eager to adopt e-wallets. They want a fast, easy-to-use, safe, and seamless payment experience – and BLIK addresses all these customer expectations in Poland. 

BLIK is currently the strongest brand in the category of modern payments in Poland, aiming to constantly improve its position on the market and increase its advantage over other systems, often offered by global players. In the second quarter of 2021, users made 176 million transactions via BLIK – twice as many as in the same period of 2020. The total value of transactions also doubled as compared to the first three months of last year and amounted to PLN 24 billion. 

Undoubtedly, the pandemic has changed the payment process, reducing the use of cash. Most retailing activities had to move online almost overnight, and consumers now see online payments as the new standard. Consumers expect retailers not only to offer low prices and a wide range of products but also to provide them with fast, convenient, and secure payment methods. 

In Poland, this trend is very strong. With every year, the value of the online market is growing, and BLIK is often the first and most common choice in terms of mobile payment systems, especially in ecommerce. In the second quarter of 2021, almost 70% of BLIK transactions were made online. The total number of transactions was 121.5 million, of which more than 3.8 million were made on global ecommerce platforms and settled by international payment operators. 

What has determined this success? It can be said that BLIK simplifies finances and turns payments into a positive and pleasant experience. Additionally, it provides a very good user experience, making it a willingly recommended service and brand, soon to be used by an increasing number of customers around the world. 

Instant payments in Poland 

Mobile payments are highly developed in the country. After the first quarter of 2021, banks in Poland had over 8 million ‘mobile-only’ customers – those for whom the only channel of contact with a financial institution is a banking application on a smartphone. If we look at the data from 2020, the increase is impressive –  1.8 million. In total, we already have over 17 million people in Poland who actively use mobile banking. Additionally, many studies show that nowadays customers log into the bank's application not only to check the balance on their account. They want to manage their finances through this channel, take advantage of special offers, make purchases, and settle accounts with each other. 

Transfers to a phone number already account for almost 15% of all BLIK transactions in Poland. In the second quarter of 2021, this method has enabled users to transfer money 25.5 million times, representing an increase of 187% year-on-year. This means that this way of transferring money – instantly and at any time – is a growing trend. 

The post-pandemic future is contactless 

The pandemic has accelerated yet another process – the progressive development of contactless payments. Purchasers, after the difficult period of closing some physical shop locations, mainly shopping malls, have started to return to shopping in person and increasingly use methods that do not require them to touch card readers, manually enter PIN codes, or even touch device screens. This means that there will be no return to cash payments – due to a permanent shift in consumer preferences. 

The growing popularity of contactless payments is also observed in Poland, where their share of the total number of payments is constantly growing. This year, BLIK has made contactless payments available to its users, thus supporting their payment method preferences. 

The use of tokenisation in combination with mobile payments based solely on the user's current account is a breakthrough in contactless payments. The implementation of this scheme was made possible by combining BLIK’s technology with solutions created by Mastercard. All that is needed is to unlock the phone and place it near the terminal – without entering a code, without having to plug in the card, and even without an internet or mobile network connection. Thus, the convenience to which shoppers have become accustomed is also available in stationary shops. 

BLIK is gradually making contactless payments (in stationary shops in Poland and abroad) available to customers of other banks, complementing the existing range of schemes offered by the mobile payment system – payments on the Internet, transfers to a phone number, ATM transactions, payments in stationary shops. This way, BLIK becomes a complete system. 

The market analysis of mobile payments trends and BLIK transactions also shows that providing consumers with the best mobile payments experience is a factor that largely determines customers’ return to specific shops. The second element is, of course, the security of online payments, which mainly means strong authorisation procedures and minimising the need for shoppers to leave sensitive data online. 

About Dariusz Mazurkiewicz 

Since 2017, CEO of Polish Payments Standard (Polski Standard Płatności – PSP), which runs the popular, account-based mobile payment system BLIK. In 2015–2017, Vice President of the BLIK Management Board, responsible for product and partner development of the system. Previously in the ecommerce and media industries. 

About BLIK 

BLIK is a mobile payment system that enables ecommerce payments, POS payments, ATM cash withdrawals, and mobile P2P payments. BLIK has a dominant share of the mobile payments market in Poland. BLIK has won many prestigious awards, including the title of FinTech of the Year in 2019 by Cashless.pl and FinTech of the Year 2020 by Invest Cuffs.