Payment trends come and go. A select few can endure the test of time, but far more end up flashes in the payments pan. Being able to figure out which is which is an essential part of running a modern business, but sorting the wheat from the chaff is harder than it sounds. Luckily, there are a few key things you can keep an eye out for when giving those promising and not-so-promising new payment technologies an overview.

The most obvious trait of a successful payment method is convenience. There’s not much your average consumer values more than speed and ease-of-use, so most newcomer payment tech that offers a boost in payment expedience stands a good chance of hanging around for a while. The most obvious example of that in recent years is contactless payments. Contactless has drastically cut the time your average payment takes, which is a big reason why card payments are quickly usurping cash for the mantle of “most popular payment method”. Convenience trumps everything else; it’s why contactless reigns supreme and why wearable payments are predicted to make up 20% of mobile proximity payments in the near future.

Something else to keep in mind is the shifting generational landscape. With generation Z rapidly approaching maturity, there’s no telling how their payment preferences are going to upend everything. Key to the younger generation’s desires is personalisation, which has them turning to customisable P2P solutions and challenger banks like Monzo for their payment needs. The leading payment technologies of the future might have to be as fast as a tap-and-go method and as customisable as your Facebook page.

Last, but far from least, is security. Customers doing their shopping online are still pretty conscious of their safety when they type their card details into a checkout form, and they’re not liable to use methods that play fast and loose with their data. The hallmark of a payment phenomenon is the balance of capability and security, able to handle a vast range of methods safely. Whether that’s increasingly popular mobile tech like Apple Pay, the digital wallets that have taken over China, or a multitude of national and international card schemes, it needs to deal with everything and it needs to do it right.

Payments tech grows and diversifies by the day, with new potential hits (and even more surefire duds) hitting the streets on a practically daily basis. Staying on the bleeding edge is the best way of keeping your customers happy, while slipping behind carries the risk of alienating your customers who stay ahead of the curve. By paying close attention the changing winds of payments tech, you keep your customers happy and become a market leader in innovation, staying ahead of the competition and setting the direction of your industry’s approach to payments for years to come.