E-commerce continues to be a growing sector in the realm of trade and business and shows no signs of slowing down. People want their products, and the want them now and at the click of a button. The American consumer continues to be fickle in their decisions thereby leading them to go with the most cost effective and speedy product solutions. “Prime Day” by Amazon was a “prime” example of the consumer sentiment towards e-commerce as it stands today in addition to another death knell for traditional brick and mortar outlets.
As online business continues to surge the payment methods that support this infrastructure must evolve as well. Today your primary players in the internet payments sphere are the major credit card companies in addition to PayPal. These companies have provided payments solutions to the online consumer for years are are entrenched in this space.
Nonetheless disruption appears to be on the horizon, or some would argue that it’s already here, in the form of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Bitcoin allows for more rapid, almost instant, payments without the fees associated with credit cards and PayPal. Bitcoin is developing into the “cash” of the internet in a society that is over indebted to its eyeballs in consumer debt. When the debt bubble pops, looks for cash usage to rise meaning increased utilization of Bitcoin as a payments vehicle on the web.
In a world looking to move at the speed of e-commerce look for Bitcoin and its digital currency brethren to begin playing a more central role in the web payments arena. Digital currency for a digital age…it makes sense that we’ll move, as a society, in this direction. Start learning about the e-commerce and financial technology revolutions now to better enable you and your families to capitalize on this world of ever changing opportunity.