According to recent research from RFi Group, Australia led all other countries in the take-up of contactless card payments in the 2015-16 financial year, significantly ahead of the UK and the US.  

There are no signs of Australia slowing its appetite for easy ways to pay.

The shift to ‘digital-first’ payments is defined by disruptive technology developments in the global market, including app-based digital payment solutions banks now market to consumers and businesses to meet their increasing expectations for managing payments and cash-flow with greater ease.  

In fact, the space outside of tap and pay is really starting to heat up, including an announcement from the Reserve Bank of Australia that it will soon roll out its New Payment Platform system to allow instantaneous money transfers between banks.

Other welcome advancements include the integration of payments with bespoke business agreements.

This new ability to let businesses collect signatures and payments together truly is the next big thing in the digital payment era.

There’s no doubt that the tech world sees payments as a hot development area.

The question is: what makes Australia race ahead of other countries when it comes to adopting and embracing payments technology, while many other nations are still questioning the concept of having a chip in their bank cards?

'Why not?' culture

Perhaps it’s down to Australia being a young nation of digital natives.

This ingredient plays a significant role in building a market where consumers and business decision-makers generally believe that anything is possible, and have an appetite for new ways of consuming services.

Our economy is increasingly driven by Millennials, whose first response to being told something can’t be done (or can’t be done now) is to ask ‘Why not?”, and think of how things could be done differently.

As a result, many Australian businesses, whether they are start-ups, SMEs or large corporations, are innovation pioneers.

Whole industries, such as retail, are constantly challenging traditional business models and considering new approaches to anticipate what customers will want tomorrow.

In fact, many companies, especially in the technology sector, use the Australian market to test new products and services before rolling them out elsewhere in the world.

Australian consumers and companies are becoming accustomed to having access to new services as a result – and are arguably less fearful of them because of it.

This innovation mindset impacts how Millennials and businesses envision the future of payment. Australians don’t want to stand by a scanner and scan paperwork for emailing to their new business suppliers and customers.

They don’t want to use paper forms anymore, nor follow time consuming processes.

They want things to be easy, and use tools such as apps that will help deal with the burden of payments so they focus on growing the business.

The Commonwealth Bank is a great example of Australian organisations’ appetite to go paperless.

Last year, the bank disrupted the traditional banking model to facilitate the world’s first blockchain trade, using smart contracts versus exchanging paper ones.

The risk of ignoring change

Larger than the opportunity is the potential for risk associated with standing steadfastly by traditional payment processes.

Research has found that Australians have become so accustomed to the concept of convenient payment that more than one-third of us admit to feeling annoyed when not offered an easy payment option. Irritation is certainly not good for net promoter scores!

Not only consumers but businesses are now consistently demanding greater convenience and simplicity when paying online. Our own customers tell us as much every day.

We asked a cross section of them what kind of pain they were experiencing around payments and 65 per cent cited delays in collecting payment of 60 days or more – sometimes even a complete failure to collect.

The fact is, we no longer want to mess around with wet signatures and clunky five-step invoicing processes.

We expect making payments and collecting payments to be instant, secure and straightforward. And, as Australians, we’re primed and ready to embrace change.

The opportunity for businesses to follow the paper-free movement en masse in this rapid adoption environment is attractive to so many traditionally paper-intensive industries, including real estate agencies, law firms, accounting firms and virtually any invoicing business.

Australia: a confident payments tech market

Fortunately, it’s my experience that Australians and Australian businesses are much more confident when it comes to trialing new payment technology than users in other countries, which is one of the reasons why I believe digital payment has been spreading so quickly here.

While consumers were once worried about the risks of having their contactless cards stolen, or using them while walking past a terminal and accidentally approving a payment, most Aussies now feel confident about using all kinds of new technology, including payments technology, which will hopefully inspire the rest of the world.

Brad Newton is vice president of DocuSign in Australia and New Zealand.