Digital Wallet Development: Key Steps

Social distancing during the pandemic has set off the widespread use of contactless payment. Nowadays, e-wallet payment solutions, and electronic wallets, in particular, are gaining immense popularity around the world. 

Many people love e-wallets because they are an electronic replica of a leather wallet that you don’t have to lug around all the time. E-wallets let you can keep and access all your payment information on your smartphone, including debit/credit cards and bank accounts, and even add your loyalty cards, tickets, gift cards, and coupons. 

So, why it’s worth tapping into digital wallet development? Mobile payment belongs to one of the most rapidly growing sectors. Reports show that the value of transactions from electronic wallets will increase by 60% by 2026 and the digital wallet market share is expected to grow to $400 billion by 2027. So, if you’re looking for a profitable niche to tap into, it may be an excellent pick. 

In this post, we will go over the key steps of creating a tap-and-pay solution like an electronic wallet. Let’s begin!

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E-wallet payment system development: Key steps

Here are the basic steps you can follow in your e-wallet payment system development journey. 

Dive into the market

First off, you should define the type of e-wallet payment solution you want to introduce to the market. Several types of solutions hold sway in the landscape of digital wallet development nowadays, including the following: 

Closed wallets: All transactions made through this kind of wallet are meant for a company that initiates closed wallet development. Such a system lets companies (and their affiliates) sell products and services only to their users. An example of a closed wallet is Amazon Pay.

Semi-closed wallets: This type of wallet allows users to transact only with certain merchants, usually those who have an agreement with an issuer of an e-wallet. 

Open wallets: Open wallets are issued by banks or financial institutions and allow users to pay for goods and services, withdraw cash from ATMs or banks, and transfer funds to other media. Paypal is one example of an open wallet.

IoT wallets: E-wallets go beyond smartphones. Nowadays, you can pay with your smartwatch or via any appliance connected to the Internet. This type of solution belongs to the category of Internet of Things wallets. 

Crypto wallets. A crypto wallet is a Fort Knox for your Blockchain interaction tools. It lets you store, access, and exchange your crypto assets, for example, Bitcoin. 

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Consider key features

There’s a slew of features you need to deliver in the course of a digital wallet development process. Note that when selecting which features to add to your app, you should be guided by your business goals. 

• Payment transfer

Your e-wallet payment solution should make it easy for users to initiate payments to bank accounts and receive money from those. 

• Bill payments

Your users are probably looking for a way to pay bills on the go, so you may want to add the feature to let them pay for rent, utilities, mortgages, etc using your e-wallet payment solution. 

• Virtual card management

Digital wallet development assumes creating virtual cards as supplements for physical cards. Users typically expect they can easily and securely save their credit and debit card information and manage it conveniently, preferably in one click or tap.

• Scan-and-pay solutions

The key component of contactless tech is the QR code, which allows users to pay by simply scanning a code. This feature is definitely worth considering in the course of digital wallet development, as contactless payments are likely to persist beyond the pandemic. 

• Simple registration

The marker of a solid e-wallet is a nimble experience. If you build a fast sign-in process and swift onboarding, chances are high that users will stick with your electronic wallet. 

• Rewards 

A key to a successful digital wallet development venture is providing rewards for your users. In simple words, you should give them a reason to use your wallet. So, it makes sense to take time and develop a solid loyalty program to keep those first users around. 

Other important features you may want to keep in mind when launching digital wallet development:

• Creating an e-wallet online payment account;
• History of transactions;
• Budget trackers;
• Push notifications;
• Geolocation;
• Integration with wearables;
• Chatbot integration. 

Build a team

In many cases, digital wallet development requires a tech team skilled in native mobile development. A standard team to design and deliver an e-wallet payment solution may include the following roles:

• A business analyst;
• An architect of the e-wallet payment system;
• A project manager;
• Backend developers;
• Android developers (Java or Kotlin);
• iOS developers (Swift or Objective-C);
• Quality Assurance specialists;
• UI/UX designer(s).

We at nCube can add experienced Fintech developers to your team on a transparent dedicated model. The engineers we provide will be a part of your remote environment, working only for you 5 days per week on a full-time basis. During the digital wallet development process, you will manage the team directly, while we will take care of recruitment, HR support, IT infrastructure, and employee retention. Companies like Life360, Flightright, Encore Capital, and many more chose our model to build their stand-alone delivery centers where we act as a provider of a sustainable mobile development team.

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Select payment methodology

An essential element of digital wallet development is to define the payment option(s) you will integrate into your app. Here’re several options to consider:

• POS (Point of Sale);
• Near Field Communication (NFC);
• Soundwave-based payments;
• QR code;
• Beacon. 

Learn about these options before your team sets in motion the next stage, an actual digital wallet development. 

E-wallet payment system development: Design and code

This is the main step where the team brings your e-wallet to life by building all parts of the system, including front-end and back-end elements. 

Designing the User Interface is the primary step in e-wallet payment system development. The main task for your UX/UI designer is to create an engaging, easy-to-use interface. While creating an interface, your team should focus on building a unified experience for all screens while keeping in mind the demands of modern smartphones, such as screen sizes, one-handed mode, “thumb zones”, and more.  

After the design is verified, time to move on to the next stage – writing code. At this phase of digital wallet development, your team will deliver all features you deem necessary for the first version of the product. Then your Quality Assurance specialists will ensure the code is bug-free and suggest improvements if any. Finally, your team will take care of the API integrations needed for your app to go live. 

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Security

Customers always count on reliable and secure service. Thus, your team should be aware of and apply proven methods to protect your users’ sensitive data. Here are a few ways to ensure e-wallet security:

• Two-factor authentication;
• Tokenization;
• P2PE (Point-to-Point Encryption);
• SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).

Launch 

If you’re at this step, congrats! It’s time for your brand new e-wallet to meet the world. During the launch, your team can take care of optimization for the App Store optimization so that it reaches your target market swiftly. Your marketing team may also want to create advertisements to attract first users. 

Building a team of skilled developers with experience in Fintech is the best approach you can take for digital wallet development. nCube has more than 15 years of experience augmenting tech teams for companies worldwide. Let’s connect.