Re-watch and re-cap: Digital Payments Forum 12/03
Joe Roche / 15th March 2021
On the 12th March the northern FinTech community came together virtually to explore the Payments sector. FinTech across the Northern Powerhouse is vibrant and diverse, Payments is one of many Northern strengths within FinTech and has seen success and challenges over the past 12 months, as the way we live and pay for things has had to change rapidly.
To reinforce this, the Kalifa Review shows payments to be a key strength in 6 of the 10 clusters it identifies, with 2 of those clusters being in the North. We were therefore doubly delighted to have pan-northern representation with Payments FinTechs from the North West, the North East and Yorkshire all featuring.
The Digital Payments forum was hosted in partnership with global payments platform Adyen. We were also supported by Dynamo North East. We would like to say a huge thank you to both partners; without their key support, we would be unable to bring together and showcase the Northern FinTech ecosystems.
For those who could not join the session live, we have produced a recording and a write-up. Please click the image below to view the recording.
Joe Roche, Engagement Manager at FinTech North, welcomed everyone on behalf of FinTech North. Joe explained about the work FinTech North does in the ecosystem and ran through the agenda before handing over to Dawn Dunn, Innovation Manager FinTech & Data at Dynamo North East. Dawn talked about the role Dynamo plays developing the North East FinTech and Tech economy, with a nod to a collaborative working relationship with FinTech North.
We then welcomed Angela Yore, Co-founder and Managing Director of FinTech PR specialists SkyParlour and NED for the Emerging Payments Association, to the virtual stage. Angela talked about the Power of Collaboration within the payments sector and the value of community across northern FinTech as a whole.
“The North’s secret weapon is collaboration” – Angela Yore, Managing Director, SkyParlour
James Capel, Senior Account Manager at global payments platform Adyen, was our next speaker. James delivered a fascinating keynote on the Age of Flexibility from Adyen’s perspective. James spoke about the world pre-covid being ‘the age of experience’, reflecting unified commerce, rather than an omni-channel approach.
“If you don’t have a slick, easy to use online checkout experience, retailers can quickly lose a sale, as shoppers can just open a new tab and go to their competitor.” – James Capel, Senior Account Manager, Adyen
James highlighted the recent quick shift to eCommerce, which saw a 130% jump in a matter of weeks when the pandemic happened. James then shared a series of case-studies to demonstrate different experiences and successes. Examples included Dishoom, JD Sports and Boohoo Group.
“The jump we saw in eCommerce during the pandemic is sustaining, pointing to changing consumer behaviour” – James Capel, Senior Account Manager, Adyen
James also mentioned Marketplace Saas platforms, examples including pay-at-table platforms such as Round, which have improved our experience and could well be here to stay.
James then spoke about the importance of flexibility; with flexible Payments enabling:
- Upselling
- Click & collect allowing payment beforehand
- Scan & go minimising human contact and also leading to a 50% increase in average basket size
- Pay by link
James’ key takeaways were:
- Leverage digital and eCommerce – to remain flexible and agile to external complications
- Be change champions – push for brave innovation and change in your industry
- Plan for the worst, hope for the best – we are likely to feel the effects of this last year for some time to come
We then welcomed three innovative northern Payments FinTechs for a mini-payments showcase. See below for timings:
Pete Cheyne, Founder, BottlePay – 00:29:50
Aaron Holmes, CEO, Kani Payments – 00:37:20
Peter Cornforth, Commercial Director, AnswerPay – 00:44:00
The Future of Payments Panel Discussion and interactive Q&A – 00:51:59
We then welcomed all of our speakers back onto the virtual stage to discuss the future of payments, in light of everything we had heard and seen. Themes covered by the panel included:
- Financial Inclusion
- Cryptocurrencies
- Open Banking
- AI
- The Future of Payments
- Collaboration
- The Kalifa Review
Click here to watch the recording of the Digital Payments Forum.
The Digital Payments Forum was supported by Adyen and Dynamo North East. For more information on supporting FinTech North, including partnerships and other speaking and sponsorship opportunities, please contact FinTech North Engagement Manager Joe Roche.
