Thoughts & trends: back from Seamless 2023
Seamless 2023, one of the biggest e-commerce and Fintech trade fairs in Europe, took place on October 18th and 19th, in Berlin. This edition was entitled “The future of Retail, E-Commerce, Payments & Fintech across Europe”. Our Head of Product, Ramzi Dziri, flew in to spend two days in the “Grey City”. Today, he shares his feedback on the event: here are the themes on the rise as well as some thoughtful reflections.
The themes on the rise: Artificial Intelligence which is starting to move from a trendy buzzword to a strategic asset, profitability/efficiency (more than ever, in difficult economic times for many companies and most countries), growing interest and initiatives around CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) led by different governments and authorities.
Getting less hype lately: Crypto/blockchain seems to be generating less interest, omnichannel strategies or the need to offer unique experiences across all channels (considered as taken and not as something to preach for).
Stable topics: Open Banking and the move towards Open Finance, the never-ending digitalization of finance and retail, and new pieces of regulation that keep on transforming the landscape.
Ramzi also shares his thoughts and reflections based on some of the presentations and discussions during the event:
- Banks have the potential to better understand users based on what they do (transactions) than social media giants that rely on what these users want (likes, follows)
- Agility in product development remains very important in increasingly uncertain and complex environments, with iteration and user testing to reach a quick product/market fit
- We are seeing more and more concrete examples of Embedded finance (i.e. consumer credit assessment, payment initiation, selection of insurance products) in order to deliver new features and solutions to users with minimum investments. By definition, these concrete cases can apply to most companies, regardless of the industry they evolve in
- Digitalization in traditional banking, driven by neo and challenger banks, is still an ongoing project whether it is to make internal processes more efficient or to leverage improved and/or new customer journeys
- Different models for Open Innovation are emerging to enhance the collaboration/cooperation between Fintechs and banks. As highlighted by several experts, “the collaboration paradigm needs to be reconsidered”, stressing the need, notably, for cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaborations
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