With the current state of our society, it is time for new money transfer apps to take over. The traditional payment methods are out of date and leave much to be desired. There will be three types of mobile banking users, according to reports: those who do not use any form of digital payment at all, those who pay with cash or debit/credit card without using their phone's app, and those who do use some form of digital payment. With society moving away from cash, the future of money transfer apps appears bright.
Why is creating a money transfer app a good idea?
High demand
According to the Precedent Research report, the global P2P payment market is worth $1.89 trillion in 2021. It is expected to reach $9.87 trillion by 2030, making the money transfer apps market a lucrative niche to enter.
Mobile payments are becoming more popular than ever, with over 2.5 billion active users. Quick peer-to-peer money transfers provide a quick and social way to send and receive money. Although the volume of money transfers decreased in 2022 as a result of the crisis caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine, the high demand for quick digital payments that soared during the pandemic isn't going away anytime soon.
Inclusion of funds
Demand isn't the only reason why developing an instant money transfer app appears to be a good idea. Indeed, it may be the only way for the unbanked to gain access to financial services that would otherwise be unavailable in certain countries and regions. According to Statista, the five countries with the highest percentage of unbanked people are Morocco, Vietnam, Egypt, the Philippines, and Mexico.
According to the World Bank, the list of countries with insufficient financial inclusion is much longer, with approximately 1,7 billion people in total as of 2017. As a result, assuming the population has access to smartphones and the Internet, it is safe to assume peer-to-peer payment applications will be in demand.
What exactly is a money transfer app, and how does it function?
A money transfer or peer-to-peer payment app is a type of app that allows users to send money to others without using a bank or credit card. It also allows users to conduct banking transactions and exchange currency using cashless payment methods.
How do payment apps function?
Apps for transferring money are complicated "under the hood," despite their simplicity to end users. Let's take a closer look at how mobile money transfers work.
Most P2P payment apps include a digital wallet where customers can deposit funds to be used for payments and domestic or international transfers.
If both parties use the same payment app, they can send money to each other by simply entering a recipient's email or mobile number. The transferred amount is taken from the sender's wallet and credited to the recipient's.
If the transfer involves bank accounts or credit cards, the process will include sending encrypted data to the payment processor, credit card issuers, or banks to confirm the required amount is available at the sender's account and then adding the sum to the recipient's balance.
Now that we understand why and how to build local or international money transfer apps, let's look at how to do it correctly.
What features should a money transfer app have?
Money transfer apps offer a number of features that can be beneficial to both businesses and consumers.
These apps enable users to quickly and easily send money to friends, family, and other contacts.
They also provide the ability to pay bills, buy airtime, and make in-app purchases, removing the need for users to use cash in their daily lives or spend hours paying their bills in person. The most important ones are listed below.
Ewallets As previously stated, a ewallet allows users to store their funds and bank data within the payment app as well as perform transactions.
Payment of bills
Another feature of a customer-focused money transfer application is the ability to handle phone top-ups, utility bill payments, and other online transactions with a few taps. Adding invoice scanning to this feature will increase the appeal of your application to customers and help you gain a competitive advantage.
Keeping track of your expenses
This feature adds value by assisting users in better managing their finances. Essentially, it means visualising all transactions and categorising them based on volume, status, location, and so on. Your customers will benefit from improved UX and the opportunity to optimise their spending.
International money transfer
Remove the barriers for your users and allow them to send or receive international money transfers in minutes, without delays or exorbitant fees.
Currency conversion
This feature allows your prospective users to send and receive different currencies, as well as exchange currency between their accounts.
Online ID verification
Because they protect both the sender and the receiver, online ID checks are a common feature on money transfer apps. The sender can be confident that their information is being securely transmitted, and the recipient can avoid scams or fraudulent transactions. Money transfer apps with online ID checks are also convenient for both parties because there is no need for them to meet in person or exchange phone numbers.
Interface in multiple languages
A single language interface may be sufficient for startups, but it is worth considering adding multiple languages later on to accelerate product growth and global expansion.
Customer service
A good customer support system will typically include live chat, email, and phone call support. However, online chats are frequently the most popular option, allowing customers to get the most immediate assistance by asking a question in the in-app chat.
How do I build a money transfer app? Important steps
Once you've decided on the wire transfer app and defined its market and type (for example, a standalone P2P payment app like PayPal or Zelle, or a bank-centric app that allows customers to access certain bank services 24 hours a day, seven days a week), it's time to start developing the app.
Create a product concept with key features.
We discussed the essential features of a payment app above, but these are fairly generic. Your product will have its own feature set, which will be determined by market needs, goals, available budget, and team resources, among other factors.
As a result, creating a kind of PRD (product requirements document) for your app, specifying the required and nice-to-have features, will make your subsequent development steps much easier and more structured.
2. Design a UI/UX concept
At this point, your designers can begin working on the app's interface concept, ensuring that it is intuitive and user-friendly, as well as compatibility with a variety of devices such as smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers.
3. Select a development strategy
Once you've identified the key features of your peer-to-peer transfers app, it's time to consider its implementation and development. We won't go over methodologies or tech stacks here, but we will give you an idea of the main options for remittance app development.
Internal development
If you have a strong team of developers with good fintech experience, they can build your product from the ground up. Given the difficulty of assembling a team of 20+ professionals for a fintech project, it is safe to assume that this option is most viable for enterprise-level companies and difficult to achieve for smaller businesses.
Outsourcing software development
Businesses that lack the necessary talent to develop a money transfer system in-house can outsource development to fintech development firms. In this case, the discovery phase yields a clear vision of the product in terms of technological implementation, which the development team then brings to life. It is not a cheap option, and it usually takes just as long as in-house development.
Using a SaaS-based cloud-based fintech solution
Omninos, for example, aims to bridge the budget and development time gap between an initial product concept and a live application by providing a cloud-based API-driven transactional core on which to build finance products. It has a number of advantages that set it apart from the competition and make it a viable alternative to the more traditional solutions listed above.
What services does the Omninos cloud SaaS payment platform provide?
Release acceleration - The Omninos platform serves as a development shortcut, allowing customers' teams to avoid starting from scratch and instead use the software as a backend platform for a payment app. This not only significantly reduces development time, but also allows the team to focus on customising its functionality, adding necessary integrations, and building extra features via API.
Affordability - the subscription-based payment model eliminates the need for upfront infrastructure investments, making it possible for startup companies working on their MVPs to compete with SMBs and enterprises.
SDK's hybrid cloud SaaS fintech platform requires no commitment.
Finance denotes that a customer's team does not handle app maintenance and has the option to cancel the subscription at any time (or purchase the source code – and go on-premise).
How long does it take to create a money transfer app?
The platform you use, the development tools, how much customization you require, whether you have an in-house team, and so on are the main factors that influence the time it takes to develop a money transfer app.
Even if you select a payment platform from a vendor such as Omninos, which will reduce the time-to-launch, there is no way to estimate the approximate development time without knowing your specific product requirements and pre-requisites.
Finishing up
Once you've determined your app's requirements, you can weigh the benefits and drawbacks of various development options and select software vendors or outsourcing partners to assist you in developing a project roadmap that will take you from concept to launch.
P.S. Contact us for expert advice on how to implement your project on the Omninos platform.
