The topic of our meeting today is dictated by the market realities themselves. High inflation and a significant drop in real incomes have created a new consumer paradigm, when the buyer has become more picky, and the fight for his limited budget is tougher than ever.
Psychology of Consumption
Before diving into technological solutions, it is worth looking at the foundation on which they are built. Fresh analytics paints a rather harsh picture, despite some stabilization of indicators, the feeling of financial vulnerability among consumers has become chronic.
According to NielsenIQ, the main triggers of anxiety remain basic needs(https://financialit.net/blog/economicchallenges-digitalfinance/role-fintech-tough-economic-times):
- 33% of respondents are most concerned about rising food prices;
- 20% are concerned about utility bills;
- 19% are concerned about the general fear of recession.
Interviewer: Artem, we see that consumers have become extremely cautious. Analysts predict that the trend towards reducing spending will continue throughout 2025 and beyond. How does this directly affect the market structure?
Artem Lyashanov: We are observing what I call the filtering of needs. The services sector and the category of goods that can be done without have been hit the hardest. This means that for businesses in these niches, the fight is no longer for loyalty, but for the right to get on the short list of expenses that a person is still willing to afford.
Interviewer: But people can’t just stop living and having fun. Do you see any islands of stability in this statistic?
Artem Lyashanov: Yes, and this is an extremely interesting trend, home socialization. People are not ready to completely give up the joys of life, but they are massively transferring them to the walls of their own homes.
Spending on home entertainment (48%) and meetings with friends in a narrow circle (46%) remain stable. At home, spending is more controlled, but the need for emotions has not disappeared. For fintech and retail, this is a huge room for maneuver.
Interviewer: What do you mean? How can a business adapt to the fact that the client is locked up at home?
Artem Lyashanov: If the client does not go to a restaurant, the restaurant (or store) must come to the client with a financial offer that will remove this psychological barrier at a high cost or risk.
Democratization of technology
Interviewer: We discussed the change in consumer behavior, but how exactly should businesses respond to these challenges technically? Previously, the implementation of complex financial instruments was the prerogative of large corporations with huge budgets.
Artem Lyashanov: This is the main change. The main advantage of modern fintech solutions is that they remove this technological qualification. What previously required months of development and millions of investments is now available through open APIs and a few lines of code.
Interviewer: So the threshold for launching complex projects has radically decreased?
Artem Lyashanov: Fundamentally. Entrepreneurs receive a ready-made financial management system out of the box. This changes the very philosophy of launching. No waiting for bank checks for months. No long implementation times. Significant budget savings.
Interviewer: It seems that every second service promises quick integration. What should online businesses pay attention to in order not to be trapped in a limited system?
Artem Lyashanov: This is a critical question. When online businesses are looking for a partner, their expectations should go far beyond basic card processing. Architecture is the foundation of success. Businesses need resilient systems that scale with them and, most importantly, easily adapt to changing consumer behavior.
Interviewer: You often emphasize the importance of a provider’s own technology stack. Why is this so important?
Artem Lyashanov: Because fintech companies that fully control their tech stack have a huge advantage over intermediaries. An intermediary is always limited by the capabilities of the person from whom they rent the technology. A proprietary stack means that the provider can adapt the system to your specific needs, rather than just throwing up their hands.
Final conclusions
Concluding the discussion of the transformation of e-commerce, it becomes clear that the choice of a payment partner is no longer a purely technical issue. Today, it is a foundation for scaling, where the physical presence of the provider in the target regions is critical.
To grow while maintaining a low customer acquisition cost (CAC), a business must adapt the order fulfillment process to the habits of a specific market.
Artem Lyashanov
Finally, we come to the issue of reputation. Fintech providers and e-commerce platforms have a shared responsibility to the end consumer. The recent investigations by the European Commission into aggressive tactics by giants such as Temu and Shein (including manipulative reviews and substandard products) clearly indicate a new trend where regulators and society are demanding transparency.
Editorial Principles
Market figures in this material are tied to named sources, and expert opinions are kept separate from verified data. Our editorial team checks claims against primary reports and aligns security and risk statements with guidance from NIST and ENISA before publication.
Architecture is the foundation of success. — Artem Lyashanov