What's interesting is that those segments who had typically favoured immediate and fast payments – the retail and quick service restaurant experiences we know and love are likely to be disrupted and make shifts toward "order in advance" processes that we are more used to as the guest experience in hospitality.  

In retail, we browse, we try, we pay, we consume.  When we stay at hotels, however, we order in advance – we browse, we reserve (with a pre-auth), we check in, we consume, we pay... the C-19 underlying trends are likely to push retail toward an order in advance payment experience.

• Retail – Merchants will need to expose store level inventory and stock levels to power services such as Click and Collect and Click and Deliver. In the luxury retail and VIP space, personal shopping for high value shoppers or shipping to home or hotel are likely to increase.
  
  
• Food & Beverage – Many quick service and dine at table restaurants offered new order in advance or delivery services during the lock down period. In the early return, we see some able to order at the table, take a picture of a QR code to get your menu, and some with payment completely managed via an app. 
  
  
• Hospitality – Even though hotels have always had order in advance processes, hotels are likely to benefit from new digital services that power new in room services and fully frictionless connected commerce. Hotels have specific payment requirements to power the guest experience – booking online, providing a card in advance, opening a room folio at the desk at check in, drawing down for meals, drinks, services and the room before finally paying at check out. Digital pre-auth should allow guests to reserve rooms and check in from their phones, avoiding physical contact at the desk. 
  
  
• And in the rise in unattended order in advance kiosk – The trend toward cashless payments and contactless ordering has seen the footprint of kiosks growing all over the retail space. We're now used to kiosk check-in (oh we would love that right now), we are used to kiosk fast food ordering, and also kiosk ticket collection in many of our favourite haunts and tourist attractions.

Depending on the specific use case and sector, it is likely that a large number of enterprise systems will need to be connected to allow Merchants to increase data flows and insight, and to support "order in advance". 

A more flexible, customised and personalised experience to the shopper will require greater integration and partners that understand the business process. Payment gateways can deliver rich payment data to these systems and digitise processes that deliver on personalised shopper experiences online and at point of sale.  

How will the payment experience change in sectors you serve?  Will order in advance become more common than pay as you consume? 

Sources

^{1 Top 100 Online Marketplaces Database
2 PWC Global Consumer Insights Survey 2019
3 McKinsey Insights}