That cashless effect that boosts business competitiveness and enhances user experience

Building bridges, not walls. It’s a broad concept that applies to many areas, but it can also be effectively applied to the shopping experiences of increasingly connected - yet sometimes disoriented - consumers. In this case, experts in relationship marketing speak of a “frictionless effect,” meaning without friction. We will return to this topic in this longform, as we’ve discussed it before. Building bridges, not walls, as we said. Perhaps it’s the summer mood or the approaching vacation season, but today our story begins with a bridge. One of those historic bridges that leave a mark. One that connects, not divides. One that gives travelers emotions and makes life easier for the citizens and workers of nearby areas. The bridge you see is the Holzarte bridge, towering over the Olhadubi gorges. A spectacular structure made of flexible panels carved with wood, suspended at a height of 150 meters. We are in the lush Basque province of Haute-Soule, in the hinterland known locally as Basaburua, straddling France and Spain. A land in between, but a land that connects. Nearby is the village of Larrau. Keep that name in mind, because we’ll return there shortly to talk about consumption and shopping experiences.
For now, we remain in the cool summer undergrowth at the foot of the Holzarte footbridge, just steps from the Olhadoko Erreka river, among dizzying cliffs, majestic forests, green pastures, charming villages nestled into the hillsides, abundant rivers, and deep gorges in the heart of the Pyrenees. Along the bridge’s path, ropes are installed to help hikers during the crossing. This bridge has an extraordinary history. In this wooded region, home to one of Europe’s largest beech forests, lumberjacks and workers in the timber industry had long been forced to navigate around the gorges to transport logs from one side of the valley to the other. A grueling and dangerous job that led local sawmills and companies to collaborate on finding a solution. Because together, you can climb the steepest mountains—let alone build a bridge that connects them. And so, back in 1920, the first walkway was built by Italian workers from the Lombardi Morello sawmill in Tardets. The goal: to connect the two sides of the valley and make it easier to move logs. This technical feat later became a transit bridge for lumberjacks and their mules loaded with wood. It was a way to quickly connect sawmills to logging sites in the surrounding forests. Today, this suspension bridge is one of the most striking in Europe, attracting over 50,000 visitors a year. 

From baguette to bit
Here, in the Basque Pyrenees, where Spain meets France and France becomes a village, there is a place out of time. It’s called Larrau, as mentioned earlier. A small village of fewer than 200 residents. Here you’ll find a bakery with the scent of freshly baked goods and a bistro that never closes. In the center of the square, among ancient stones and Wi-Fi networks as solid as roots, stands Chez Martine, a small emporium that is many things at once: bar, grocery store, bank counter, and more. Martine Darrigues, 68 years old, hair neatly tied, always has the latest-generation iPhone in hand. She owns this space, baking handmade baguettes every morning and accepting all forms of payment. “I haven’t used coins for three years. Not as a trend, but out of necessity. The young people here don’t carry wallets. Tourists don’t have cash. And I have no time to waste with change and calculations,” she says with a smile. The revolution began in 2020 when the pandemic emergency, which turned the entire world into a global interconnected village, also forced the smallest towns to reinvent themselves. In Larrau, the response was hi-tech: a 5G antenna installed on an old bell tower, a digital cooperative created by three young people who returned from Paris, and the support of a local bank that provided free POS terminals to all merchants with revenue under €100,000. “Contactless saved local commerce. It may sound paradoxical, but that’s how it is. Faster, cleaner, simpler. And above all, more human, because it leaves room for conversation,” said Thomas Elizondo, an engineer who returned to Larrau to open what he calls a “rural electronics lab.”
Invisible technology, but very present relationships. Building bridges, not walls. Here the idea of a bridge that connects worlds, experiences, and people comes back strongly. Martine understood that payment is not just an economic act but a moment of connection. “When you no longer have to look at the cash register, you can look at people. That’s what changes everything,” she said. Today, over 90% of transactions in Larrau are digital. And every transaction is also an opportunity for a smile, a suggestion, a chat.
The case of Larrau has even drawn the attention of the University of Toulouse, where consumer sociologist Marc Gaillard has long studied the concept of frictionless interaction. “When payment becomes invisible, the relationship can become more visible. This is the positive paradox of digital proximity,” explains Gaillard. Less friction, more value. The concept is also well established in academic literature. A well-known 2022 paper published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology by Dahl, White, and Morewedge defines the frictionless effect as the reduction of cognitive effort required to complete a transaction, showing that simplifying payment increases purchase likelihood, customer satisfaction, and long-term loyalty. Similarly, a 2023 study by Clemons & Madhani on small businesses in rural European areas shows that adopting digital systems doesn’t reduce the quality of human interaction but rather enhances it, making interaction time more focused on the person rather than the transaction.

The digital coffee at Chez Martine reminds us that payment simplicity - understood as immediacy, usability, and harmony - can strengthen relationships. A story that starts from the big heart of a shopkeeper and the gentle technology of a small store nestled in the green Basque countryside. After all, and we’ve said this many times, technology doesn’t replace humanity; it frees it. Even in the most remote places the truest innovation is the one that simplifies life without stripping it of meaning. So yes, digital wins over cash. But it truly wins only when it serves relationships, trust, and community. Like in this small village of Larrau, where a click is enough to pay, but a smile is needed to stay.

New conversational era
From Larrau to the rest of the world. It’s undeniable that digital payments can also enhance the overall shopping experience when everything is harmonious. To achieve this, technology must be flexible, secure, scalable, and high-performing. A technology that is almost invisible, yet incredibly useful. After all, our future is also embedded within a platform, but it boldly emerges to create connections. There’s been a shift, or rather, a touchpoint revolution. Once, it was the jingle of coins or the rustle of banknotes. Today, it takes just a swipe, a click, a tap. But what really matters is not just the gesture, but the infrastructure behind it: invisible, intelligent, modular, scalable, and secure. Digital payments are becoming dematerialized while simultaneously growing stronger thanks to new models. Welcome to the era of payments-as-a-platform, where technology not only enables transactions but orchestrates them. With personalization, built-in AI, fraud prevention, real-time insights, and unprecedented scalability. This is what we often call embedded finance, a technologically advanced financial framework enabling seamless tech-driven interactions between customers and businesses. These solutions integrate payments fluidly into the user journey and make it easy to adopt the most innovative tools.
Digital payments are transforming business competitiveness. They make companies smarter - and thus winners - in what Harvard Business Review now calls “the new conversational era” (here told in a podcast worth hearing and re-hearing). Meanwhile, the latest TEHA Group (The European House – Ambrosetti) research for Fabrick has analyzed consumer adoption of innovative payment solutions and measured both the digital maturity and the willingness of companies to invest in cutting-edge financial systems. In essence, it has captured how digital payments can improve the overall purchase experience. Customer satisfaction now hinges on advanced payment solutions that ensure the best possible experience, creating a competitive advantage through stronger relationships. For companies, on a scale from 1 to 6, embedded finance solutions show an average perceived impact of 4.1 in improving customer experience. Meanwhile, 70% of businesses consider payment innovation to be strategic, yet only 26.7% have already invested in advanced solutions. On the one hand, consumers are not fully aware of all the different types of innovative payments but have become accustomed to them and now expect seamless, personalized experiences. On the other hand, companies acknowledge the strategic importance of payment innovation but are still lagging in adopting advanced solutions. “Payments have shifted from being a simple transactional moment to a strategic relational lever. It is essential to offer integrated, modular digital solutions that remove friction and make the purchasing process simple and seamless for the end customer. This simplicity is now what drives consumer satisfaction and purchasing decisions. Companies that evolve toward data-driven models and open platforms, integrating services developed by third parties, will be able to strengthen relationships with their customers and gain a real competitive advantage in the new service-driven economy,” says Paolo Zaccardi, CEO and co-founder of Fabrick. “Digital payments are now an integral part of both citizens’ lives and business activities. In particular, confirming that the principles underlying embedded finance are increasingly valued, companies recognize the added value to customer experience from expanding their range of payment solutions and integrating these solutions more deeply into applications,” adds Lorenzo Tavazzi, Senior Partner and Head of Scenarios and Intelligence at TEHA Group. The research delves into the key trends, perceptions, and priorities regarding customer experience and the contribution of open finance services and digital platforms along the entire customer journey. The result? A win-win scenario showing how integrated payments create relational value for all players in the payment chain. An initial indicator of Italy’s digital maturity is the current share of digital payments in total consumption, which reached 43% last year. The total value of cashless transactions hit €482 billion, marking a structural shift in buying behaviors, something unimaginable just a few years ago. But this is a picture with shades of light and dark. Today, 3 out of 4 citizens use digital payments several times a week, these are the Digital Frequent users. Then there is 15% who use them daily, the so-called E-pay addicted. However, this growing frequency does not correspond to widespread familiarity with the most innovative solutions: 59% of respondents have never used Buy Now Pay Later services, 37.4% have never made an account-to-account payment, 29.4% have never used a digital wallet, and 38.2% have never carried out peer-to-peer transactions (instant money transfers on dedicated platforms). Although 7 out of 10 Italians are still unfamiliar with the term embedded finance, the services stemming from it are already part of everyday life. The more digital payments are used, the greater the familiarity with alternatives: knowledge is a direct effect of experience. Almost all consumers agree that payment is a crucial process that can either compromise or improve the overall shopping experience, a belief echoed by companies, which recognize the strategic value of expanding payment options and ensuring speed.

New trust metrics
In short, the role of payment, thanks to innovative digital systems, has evolved. That’s why the cashless era now offers new relational dynamics. “In ten years, payment has gone from being a simple process to a crucial consumer engagement touchpoint. In this sense, the checkout moment becomes an opportunity for personalized engagement and building lasting relationships. Italy is experiencing a digital acceleration phase, even though it started from a less advanced position. According to TEHA’s research, 73% of citizens make digital payments several times a week, but the adoption of innovative solutions is still limited. In 2024, Italian A2A (account-to-account) payments reached €9 billion (+13% in 3 years), but the UK boasts 27 million A2A transactions per month. So, there’s ample room for growth in our country. However, companies that evolve toward data-driven, open-platform models, integrating third-party services, will strengthen customer relationships and gain a true competitive edge in the new economy of integrated services,” says Tavazzi. That’s why data culture must be amplified within business processes. “Open finance is reshaping the corporate landscape, highlighting the strategic value of integration and the creation of an open ecosystem: 70% of companies consider payment innovation strategic, with 30% already investing. Payment data has now become a key relational asset, and the cornerstone of real growth is fostering a data-sharing culture—one that goes beyond direct suppliers to include all stakeholders. Our research highlights the potential of integrated systems like account-to-account or interoperable wallets to create relational value. Added to these are the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and AI agents, which can further strengthen personalization and therefore relational impact. Companies will migrate toward platform-as-a-service models, with integrated payments fueling ecosystems and new trust metrics,” Tavazzi concludes.

Memorable Experiences
Here it is: the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model mentioned earlier. It’s software meeting money, the cloud becoming a wallet, the back-end orchestrating the front-end of our economic lives. The 2025 McKinsey & Company report highlights that the global market for API-based, modular digital payments will grow 30% annually until 2030. And the true game changer will be the as-a-service logic: platforms offering banks, e-commerce, and fintech companies highly customizable plug-and-play solutions. It’s the end of monolithic systems and the beginning of a composable payment economy. “PaaS solutions, platform-as-a-service, are redefining the role of financial institutions, transforming them from account managers into curators of user experiences,” explains Chris Skinner, lecturer in Fintech Strategy at the London School of Economics. Invisible payments, memorable experiences. After all, the future of digital payments is written not only in lines of code but also in everyday gestures: ordering a taxi with your voice, checking out of a physical store without going to the register, receiving a refund via WhatsApp. All this is possible because PaaS solutions remove friction, making payment a smooth, silent step - like a breath. And in this new world, the winners won’t be those who collect the most revenue, but those who build agile, secure, invisible, and inclusive ecosystems. As Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired, wrote many years ago, envisioning a hyperconnected future while pointing out the social contradictions to overcome: “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” Meanwhile, those building platforms are already working on distributing it. One payment at a time, one consumer at a time.