In the past few years, we've seen an unmatchable revolution in mobile financial services.
Millennials and younger, digitally-native generations expect nothing but the best when it comes to their financial life. Many have already forgotten about their physical wallets, because smartphones do the same job, but even better.
Always connected and empowered by technology, customers nowadays require cutting-edge, highly-secured financial solutions that make payments as easy as possible.
The Global Mobile Payment Market report states that the market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 33% from 2019 to 2026, reaching $457.4 billion in 2026.
Banks, financial companies, telcos, and e-commerce businesses can't afford to ignore the mobile financial services revolution any longer, especially the mobile wallet opportunity.
Moreover, they need to be more innovative than ever in order to provide outstanding mobile wallet features that ensure not only high security but also great customer experience.
So, what are the best features of a mobile wallet app that will make your customers satisfied, loyal, and help your company stand out?
1. Instant Payments Between Wallets
Instant payment means the money transfer between the payer wallet and the payee wallet happens within seconds, instead of within hours or business days.
This feature provides great benefits, such as allowing payments anytime and anywhere, making funds immediately available, and increasing the control of personal and business funds.
In our cashless society, instant payments are more than a good feature. They are becoming inevitable.
2. Payments To And From Bank Accounts
A mobile wallet should allow a seamless money transfer to any bank account, including your own accounts in the same bank, as well as transfers to another person's account in different banks.
Mobile wallet owners should have a variety of options for sending and receiving personal or business money with just a few clicks wherever they are and whenever they need.
3. Bill Payments
This is one of the critical mobile wallet features because people today prefer to pay every bill online - utilities, mortgages, loans, rent, tuition, to name a few.
As digital cash is here, mobile wallets are becoming an important part of daily life and they should be able to provide an effortless bill payments solution - be it a prepaid or postpaid payment service.
4. Management of Physical and Virtual Card Operations
Digital wallets can store a user's credit/debit card data, which can be used to make money transactions at any time. In this way the e-wallet simplifies the user's finances conveniently aggregating all their cards in one central space.
Furthermore, a mobile wallet is safer than carrying all your cards with you because it doesn’t store card numbers. Instead, card data is encrypted with high-grade security.
People today have a range of credit and loyalty cards. That’s why your mobile wallet app needs to be ready to manage multiple card operations such as blocking/unblocking your cards, changing your pin, changing your account limits, applying for new cards, etc.
5. Merchant Payments via Contactless Technologies (NFC or QR code Scanning)
Needless to say, in our digital world, more and more merchants have started to realize the need for deploying various technologies that accept digital wallets.
Retail clients can make in-store payments using mobile wallets via contactless methods like near-field communication (NFC) and QR-code.
NFC is a contactless remote technology that works within a close distance (up to 10 cm) and provides people with secure payment between POS devices and smartphones.
QR code is short for Quick Response code and is very similar to a barcode. The user can easily scan the QR code via the camera on a smartphone. The smartphone interprets the barcode, and a related application or website opens.
Considering the ever-increasing user demand for contactless transfers and the convenience it offers, providing NFC and QR payment is a must-have wallet feature.
6. Security
When you provide mobile financial services, security comes first. Money transactions have to be safe and secure from end to end.
Mobile wallets can be secured with plenty of robust technologies, such as tokenization, passwords, biometrics, security questions, point-to-point encryption, out-of-band authentication, and one-time password (OTP) via SMS.
Despite the fact that digital wallets are more secure than credit cards, security concerns remain the main obstacle to wallet adoption by consumers.
This is why you need to provide your customers with an m-wallet app that is packed with powerful security capabilities.
7. Easy and Fast Self-Registration
As mobile wallets are all about saving people's time, efforts, and nerves, self-registration should be absolutely easy and fast to accomplish.
Generally, self-registration has these steps:
- Download the app and run it
- Sign up by providing the required details (name, e-mail, phone, ID cards, photos, etc.)
- Confirm registration (via OTP)
- Set up password and log in
- Link debit/credit card if necessary
- Add money and start using the wallet
Although the registration flow is a one-time procedure, it makes a crucial first impression. So, don't underestimate the value of a seamless user experience for the self-registration process.
8. Rewards, Coupons, Discounts
The power of coupons and rewards is well-known among marketers and sales teams. Mobile wallets are an ideal environment to provide deal-seeking consumers with these benefits in a relevant context.
Therefore, features that allow the easy creation and managing of coupons, discounts, tickets, loyalty points, etc. are key for a digital wallet solution and can help your mobile wallet app stand out in the market.
9. Split Bill
When it comes to modern features simplifying people's everyday tasks, splitting the bill is a no-brainer. And simplicity can be a powerful competitive advantage for your mobile wallet app.
This functionality allows users to split the payment when going to dinner with their friends, for example. It happens within the same app and is as easy as selecting the phone numbers of the friends involved.
10. Cash In/ Out at Bank Branch or ATM
Holders of mobile wallets can make an ATM cash withdrawal without using a physical credit card. They can also choose to withdraw cash from an agent/branch bank.
When it comes to ATMs, NFC technology is used - the same contactless technology that lets users pay by tapping their smartphone against a POS terminal.
Despite our world becoming more and more digital, cash is still important in many locations.
For example, if a user wants to buy fresh vegetables from a small pop-up shop in the neighborhood, your mobile wallet app should be prepared to provide them with this convenience.
11. Loan Origination
Loan origination is one of the mobile wallet features that meets the growing demand for convenient, real-time banking.
The loan origination process via a smartphone needs to be mobile-friendly, fast, and as automated as possible.
Loan origination involves collecting customer application details, integration with bank systems, instant approval supported by credit bureau integration, and more.
12. Analytical Dashboards and Diagrams
Tracking personal financial health over time is essential for every customer. We all need to stay on top of our money.
An analytical dashboard allows digital wallet holders to view and analyze their personal financial operations through reports, figures, and diagrams.
Personal finance management provides users with all the information they need to make informed financial decisions with a clear view of when, how, and where they're spending and receiving their money - across all their accounts, expenses, credit cards, and income.
13. Budgeting and Planning
Enables users to plan their finances smarter even when on the go.
Your powerful mobile wallet service needs to let users easily create budgets and make plans for wise spending. This way you can empower your customers to spot spending habits, track expenses, and save more.
A modern mobile wallet is able to act as a financial planner, providing options like:
- setting a budget for each category of expenses
- creating categories for expenses and income
- sending reminders when users are close to exceeding their budget
- sending reminders when the bills are due
- setting savings goals
14. Backup Facility
A backup facility is a vital mobile wallet feature which allows users to restore wallet data. Backup is often automatically embedded within wallet apps for user data safety.
The best option is to provide several different methods to protect user data, such as: sync data to the Dropbox cloud, sync data to iCloud, built-in email wallet backup feature, sync data via a local WiFi connection, etc.
15. Chatbot
Basically, a chatbot is a software program that interacts with people over the internet. Assisted with artificial intelligence and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), chatbots aid customers when humans are not available.
It is a powerful new way for businesses to communicate with their audience, keep their users engaged, and improve customer service.
By implementing a chatbot into your digital wallet app, your services become available 24/7 at a lower service cost.
Today, consumers expect an instant response at any digital channel. Therefore, chatbots can be a great addition boosting customer satisfaction.
How Can Software Group Help You Provide an Outstanding Mobile Wallet?
Software Group has been driving digital transformation for financial service providers across the globe for 200+ customers in both emerging and developed markets.
We don't think of a mobile wallet as just an app - we consider it a beneficial digital channel solution that helps your end customers improve their financial lives.
Our Mobile Wallet Solution provides rich portfolio of mobile financial services, such as instant P2P payments, digital loans, savings, insurance, airtime top-up, payments via contactless technologies (NFC and QR coding), easy and fast self-registration, split bill functionality, rewards, coupons, discounts, cardless ATM transactions, budgeting, planning, and chatbots.
It is a complete, flexible, enterprise-grade mobile wallet platform that helps financial organizations delight their customers and respond to rapidly changing market demands.
With more than ten years of experience in fintech software development, we help financial service businesses to deliver on their digital roadmaps through deep expertise, focus on innovation, cutting-edge technology, superb design, and an understanding of each specific business case.
