From swipe to dip, tap and flash, payment technology has leapt ahead in this century, necessitating merchants and consumers to keep up with the developments in the cashless journey, which is in turn driving the huge growth of e-commerce. Now we can shop with a just a tap of our mobile phone on the till, or of our finger on a biometric enabled touchpad. We also click and shop.

Data shows that 61 per cent of people in the Middle East and 71 per cent in the UAE shop online and increasingly on their smartphones, with a majority of them making purchases at least once a week.

The GCC e-commerce market is growing at over 30 per cent per year and is projected to more than double to $20 billion by 2020, outpacing traditional retail’s growth in low single-digits. The idea of mall hopping in a sunny place like the UAE is evident but online shopping provides customers with advantages that a brick and mortar retailer does not: of course convenience but also price comparisons, product variety and best deals.

However, e-commerce today is still largely based on cash on delivery – what I like to call c-commerce – which remains the preferred mode for payment even when consumers shop online.

When a shopper uses e-commerce to shorten the gap between wish and fulfilment, consumer trust is stretched to its limit because of the gap between money changing hands and the product being received. In the UAE, only about a third of all online shoppers pay via their e-commerce-friendly credit card. A full two-thirds still use cash on delivery, mainly due to trust issues. The haunting question is: do I really want to disclose my payment card details to multiple third-party shopping sites? The hesitation to do so is not just a loss for e-tailers and banks, but also lengthens the country’s journey to a cashless society.

When it comes to e-commerce, payments is integral to shopping. Banks today enable armchair banking via web and mobile apps with multiple layers of security. The trust engendered by this is a major strength, and can be leveraged to provide a smoother couch-commerce experience. Armchair banking will thus meet armchair shopping in a big bang evolution with the potential to disrupt customer shopping experience in a positive way.  Digital wallets such as PayPal, Visa Checkout, Masterpass, PayTM and Alipay are riding the e-commerce wave successfully.

Like the many disruptions being caused by new entrants across industries, banks, too, have a similar opportunity with e-commerce – to become the largest enabler of online shopping without actually holding any of the inventory. Uber does not own any of its vehicles, nor Airbnb any of its accommodation. This is the concept that lies at the heart of Emirates NBD’s recently launched SkyShopper portal, the first of its kind in the Middle East.  As an aggregator of aggregators, SkyShopper gives Emirates NBD customers a wide variety of choice – from travel, fashion, electronics, entertainment and grocery to international shopping – along with the trusted transaction security developed over decades.

As speed and convenience drive the cashless revolution, fraud protection is a carefully achieved balance that banks have mastered. They also become partners in their customer’s lifestyle rather than mere financial transaction providers: as customer needs evolve, they no longer look at a bank as only keepers of their money, but more as enablers of a better life experience.

Merchants and retailers, on the other hand, are looking for more effective ways to use technology to reach the right customer at the right time so that they can offer products and deals that build loyalty. It’s their core business, to which a bank can add convenience, reach and security.

By creating a consumer-centric platform as a super-aggregator of goods and services and allowing customers to shop easily across categories and with complete peace of mind, a bank has the potential to become the biggest souq or mall - without actually stocking or selling anything itself. Who said banking was boring?