As mobile spikes, card marketing must get more personal, and luxurious

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It’s safe to say mobile isn’t fading away anytime soon. By 2020, Visa predicts consumers will primarily rely on mobile payments for buying goods and services, sending money and conducting business.

While mobile is sure to grab headlines throughout the next three years, it won’t be the only way consumers pay during checkout. Physical cards will still have a place in our wallets. They may just have a more personalized, luxurious feel.

Take, for example, Chase’s Sapphire Preferred credit card. Overwhelming demand for the metal credit card following its release last summer is representative of a larger payments industry trend centered around customization. Rather than dishing out generic credit or debit cards, banks and retailers are inviting consumers to create highly personalized cards that not only meet their unique needs, but also serve as physical complements to the mobile wallet experience.

Among the payment industry’s most common personalization features are custom labels. Banks and retailers have the opportunity to enhance the consumer experience by printing full-color, edge-to-edge images, text and graphics on almost any credit or debit card out there.

Targeted information and high resolution visuals can now be included on credit and debit cards, thereby giving consumers an up close and personal look at current marketing campaigns. Perhaps even more importantly, financial card issuers and government agencies can use such labels to draw consumer attention toward products, solutions or services that are relevant to their specific demographic.

In addition to custom labels, QR codes are also bringing about personalization to the payments industry. By simply snapping a picture of their own unique QR code, users can securely and automatically generate transaction data. This extra convenience will go a long way toward speeding up the checkout process for consumers who are in a hurry.

Mobile is taking the payments industry by storm. And for good reason. Quick and easy to use, mobile offers convenience few other payment methods can. Although much will be made about mobile payments now and in the future, banks and retailers should remain conscious of the fact that physical cards aren’t going away anytime soon. From custom labels to QR codes, taking steps to incorporate personalization will enable banks and retailers to accommodate both mobile wallets and physical cards for years to come.