Consumer demand for safe, practical, and instantaneous payments is being addressed by a growing number of innovative payment options, according to the first research, Instant Economy Payment Insights. It draws attention to the parallels and divergences across the markets studied, demonstrating the variety of payment practices that present difficulties for enterprises with an increasingly global focus.

According to Lena Hackelöer, founder and CEO of Brite Payments, "Immediacy and convenience are at the core of today's instant economy, with consumers now expecting real-time interactions across all digital touchpoints and in all facets of their lives."

But in part because it necessitates a whole ecosystem of digital payment technologies that have struggled to keep up with shifting customer needs, the promise of a real instant economy remains unfulfilled.


Customers' preference

The analysis discovered that the most common problems encountered while making online payments were needing to register an account (22%) and needing to utilize an app (17%), based on fieldwork done in January 2024 that polled over 8000 consumers across six important European regions.

The frequency of these problems suggests a market for simple payment systems that just need the most recent information from customers. Convenience is undoubtedly desired, but security is the most crucial consideration when looking at a new payment option.
 

Another important factor that customers take into account when selecting a payment method is speed. Seeing transactions reflect on their accounts right away was highly valued by more than a third of respondents, with this percentage increasing to nearly half in the Netherlands and Spain (44% and 46%, respectively).

Customers also anticipate prompt cash settlement for any reimbursements or rewards they get. More than half (50.1%) of respondents concur that waiting more than an hour to get paid by a business is excessive.
 

Account-to-account payment options are not brand-new; rather, they are widely used in a number of European markets. Notable is the emergence of a new generation of Pay by Bank or A2A solutions based on open banking, which clearly converges with customer needs for more convenient and secure payments while also addressing merchant pain points, according to Hackelöer.