Digital Wallets: Types and Development Process

7 min readJun 25, 2021

With businesses going online and the increasing popularity of online purchases, users migrate from cash to digital payments. The latter include payments made over the Internet and mobile payments at POS via smartphone applications. According to Statista, the total digital transaction value is expected to reach US$10,517,932m by 2025 showing an annual growth rate (CAGR 2021–2025) of 12.01%.

The widespread use of digital payments strongly affects the increasing popularity of digital wallets which are well on their way to becoming the most popular payment method since they are convenient, easy to use, safe, and provide users with a wide range of financial opportunities. According to the World Payments Report, the number of digital wallet users globally will reach 4 billion by 2024.

The majority of the off-the-shelf solutions offer a limited range of services. Meanwhile, businesses and individuals still have specific needs uncovered with available e-wallets features. This is why there is still room for the emergence of new wallets that would fit within the digital payments market sector.

Read on to get an in-depth understanding of an e-wallet app development process, learn about e-wallet types, and make a step forward crafting your own digital wallet. And make sure to check out our recent blog post where we’ve clarified the cost breakdown of e-wallet app development.

Types of Digital Wallets

We grouped digital wallets into categories based on their target audience, delivery technology, and goals. Let’s clarify what’s the difference between them and check out the most widespread and demanded e-wallets types.

Classification by targeted users

Depending on the target audience, e-wallets can be divided into three groups.

A closed digital wallet can be developed by a company selling products and/or services. Its use is limited by making payments for the products and/or services directly provided by the wallet issuer.
Semi-closed e-wallets are online prepaid accounts that allow users to make transactions at listed merchant locations. To accept payments from semi-closed wallets, merchants need to enter into an agreement with the wallet issuer.
Open e-wallets can only be issued by banks or by institutes partnered with banks and are used for the purchase of goods and services up to the pre-funded amount.

Classification by delivery technology

This classification is based on the delivery technology used in an e-wallet.

NFC, or Near Field Communication, is a contactless payment technology based on a radio frequency and designed to exchange data between readers and payment devices through a simple touch gesture.
iBeacon and Bluetooth are the most popular technologies when it comes to proximity payments. Wallets equipped with these technologies allow data transfer via proximity and peer-to-peer payment solutions within a specific range of distance (up to 70 meters on average).
QR code stands for Quick Response code, a 2D barcode readable by smartphones. E-wallets equipped with this payment technology scan the code, decode it, and then confirm the payment information.

Such digital wallets are designed for purchasing goods and services on the Internet and are rarely used in offline outlets.

This type of e-wallets uses SMS commands for payment confirmation and is good for P2P marketplaces, C2B real-world transactions, etc.

Classification by eWallet goals

Though modern digital wallets usually combine several or all of the listed functions, narrowly targeted wallets are also highly demanded.

Such apps enable users to have maximum control over their money. Managing finances in an e-wallet helps to better understand users’ income, categorize spending, and meet budgets.

These e-wallets are designed for all kinds of online payments and provide users with quick transfer speed. Such wallets are compatible with a wide range of credit and debit cards and support a wide variety of devices.

Such digital wallets allow users to easily transfer money to friends or family or pay for goods/services through their smartphones or mobile devices. This type of e-wallets makes money transfers online easier and cheaper as they don’t require a third-party money transfer provider involved.

These digital wallets enable users to store and exchange their cryptocurrencies safely. They can be either cold or hot. The key difference between these two types is that cold wallets aren’t connected to the Internet thus they provide enhanced security. Cold wallets are hardware-based, and hot ones include mobile, desktop, and hybrid wallets.

Digital Wallets Itexus Developed

When it comes to choosing a company to develop a digital wallet app, it is crucial to make sure that the potential vendor has a proven track of successfully delivered fintech solutions. Itexus has developed and delivered multiple fintech solutions and proved to be a reliable software provider. Check out our latest projects in the fintech domain.

Personal Finance Assistant App

An intelligent money management system designed to help users to make proactive and rational decisions on their finances. The application takes advantage of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to predict future budget distribution by analyzing users’ spending records to better manage their current finances.

Money Saving and Personal Finance Assistant App

This money-saving app crafted for a Silicon Valley startup helps users to develop healthy financial habits with gamification features and supports viral marketing with social functionality.

Mobile Bank Transfer App

A mobile app-to-bank transfer solution for a US-based startup that provides instant money transfer from any American bank card to any Nigerian bank account, allows paying bills and enables users to manage several bank cards in one account.

Mobile Banking App for Migrants

This neobank solution is designed to facilitate monetary transactions like financial help to families, getting paychecks early, microloans, etc.

Digital Wallet Development Process

Prior to the app development, you have to decide on business goals you want to achieve with the application. Based on this, it will be easy to come up with the type of wallet and its target audience. Once you’ve got a clear vision of the future app, its goals, and unique features, you can proceed to the next step.

Finding an Expert Development Company

A successful app starts with a highly experienced team. When choosing a company for your e-wallet app development, pay special attention to a potential vendor’s background and clarify whether they have a proven record of crafting high-performing and stable FinTech solutions.

Discovery Phase

The discovery phase gives the right start to your project and is vital if you want your e-wallet to be feature-rich, high-performing, and delivered within time and budget. During the discovery phase, together with the vendor’s team, you’ll specify the project goals, define the scope, your future wallet functionality, set priorities, and establish a risk mitigation plan.

According to the complexity and objectives of the project, you will get all or some of the following deliverables:

Vision and Scope documents
SRS (Software requirements specification document)
Software Architecture Document (SAD)
Design concept
Detailed work breakdown structure

As a result of the discovery phase, you’ll be completely prepared for the development phase.

Development Phase

After the discovery phase, it’s time to get down to development. This is where your e-wallet is assembled.

At this stage, UI/UX designers create the interface of the future wallet according to its goals and the needs of the target audience. Key objectives of UX/UI design are making your app engaging, catchy, and easy to use and ensuring that every swipe, tap, and click would be convenient, rational, and valuable for users.

An e-wallet development includes such processes as coding, or the development itself, adding all the features, testing, implementing additional functionality of the wallet with improvements, and integrating all the third-parties and databases. Eventually, developers bring your digital wallet to life.

Specialists use a wide range of test design techniques and extensively test your digital wallet to check whether the application behavior follows the business requirements, discover flaws in code, and then fixes them. Testing and bug fixing ensure that your wallet can be successfully downloaded and executed. It’s a vital factor in the development process that brings to market a high-quality product.

Launch

The product launch involves placing the mobile wallet in the app stores and collecting early user reviews for product analysis. The product launch is an essential part of the overall development process so it should be carefully planned to ensure the market is ready for the product and the product is ready for the launch.

Support and Maintenance

This post-release phase is intended for ensuring the best possible interaction between the wallet and users. It involves system updates, incorporating enhancements of functionalities, security management, maintaining the app, and other activities needed to ensure the correct work of the wallet across all devices and platforms.

Summary

The future of digital wallets seems bright as the number of people who prefer mobile-app payment methods for all financial transactions grows rapidly, and businesses actively use such apps as well. Now when you’ve learned about mobile wallet types and the e-wallet app development process, it’s time to make a step forward to creating your own app.

Development of a high-quality product and delivering it to market requires a well-adjusted and reliable team of professionals with solid experience in the FinTech domain and a well-proven track record. Reach out to Itexus to create a digital wallet that would lead your business to success.

Originally published on Itexus Blog on June 25, 2021.