Tap-to-pay is getting a TikTok makeover as shoppers turn checking out into a personalized accessory
Cash App is expanding access to Tags, which are payment accessories that come with a magic-wand option.
The decades-old practice of paying by card is getting a modern-day makeover in the age of social media.
Content creators have built massive audiences by filming seemingly mundane routines, from getting ready in the morning to eating lunch. Now even the process of buying things is getting glammed up for social-media videos.
Earlier this year, people started putting their credit cards in 3D-printed cases shaped like magic wands and filming themselves tapping the wand against a contactless payment terminal. Others took a more simple do-it-yourself approach, taping their cards between two star-shaped pieces of paper.
"People are just looking for an excuse to have a little bit more whimsicalness to their day or a little bit more fun," said Doyin Adeyemo, who runs the online payment-accessory brand Printerade.
Doyin Adeyemo sells customized 3D-printed wands through Etsy and other online platforms.
After seeing the trend in January, Adeyemo used his engineering skills to start selling payment accessories on Etsy $(ETSY)$, TikTok Shop and Amazon.com (AMZN) for around $30 or less. Since then, he's received thousands of orders for custom 3D-printed wands and coins from popular videogames and cartoons.
At least one major corporation sees value in bringing whimsy to the payment process too.
Cash App, which is a part of Block (XYZ), has conducted various limited-edition drops of a product it calls Tags, which embed a payment credential inside a wand, heart or miniature card that can be attached to a keychain or stashed in a pocket. The company is moving forward with a broader rollout of the Tags, which will involve increasing the price from $25 to $30 and making it unnecessary to already possess a Cash App debit card before ordering one of the Tags.
"There's no reason why a payment device can't be fun and social," Block's hardware lead Thomas Templeton told MarketWatch.
When paying becomes the spectacle
Madalynn Medina, a 27-year-old mother who creates TikTok content in Fort Worth, Texas, said the social interactions and convenience of the Tags were major reasons she purchased her Wand and Mini Card accessories from Cash App.
"It's kind of cool to see people's reactions," Medina told MarketWatch. Workers at checkout counters have told her, "No way! That's not going to work," only to ask where she got it after the payment cleared.
Templeton has seen onlookers react with similar awe. The first time he used a Cash App Tag at a drugstore, he said the cashier "freaked out" and called another employee over. The group of people huddled around him wanted to void the transaction just to see him pay again.
Medina herself discovered a restock of the Tags while scrolling TikTok and thinking about the product. After buying it, she became part of the same cycle - generating more than 500,000 views across organic TikTok posts showcasing her Tags.
Despite not having a partnership with Cash App, Medina said she made unboxing videos because other users wanted to see what the Tags looked like before they went off and tried to get one themselves.
For Medina, the appeal went beyond reactions at checkout. She described herself as "crafty" and said seeing other people with Tags made her want to "bedazzle" her own payment experience. "The creativity is what drew me in because I've never seen that," she said.
Templeton said he expects the visibility of Tags to make Cash App more "top of wallet" for consumers.
"I would rather use the Tag than my card," Medina said. "It kind of brightens the day a little bit because it's just so random."
From wallet to accessory
For Cash App, the move into Tags was an opportunity to double down on the customizability that already resonated with cardholders. Nearly one in five teens already own a Cash App card, Templeton said, and the company allows users to customize their cards with colors, self-made illustrations and glow-in-the-dark features.
Those personalized cards might spark a conversation, but Templeton said the card still spent "99% of the time" inside somebody's wallet. He said Cash App was developing Tags before TikTok magic-wand videos went mainstream, as the company was looking for ways to take the unique characteristics of the Cash App debit card "to the next level."
Financial-services companies have spent decades transforming checkout systems into seamless tap-and-go experiences, and today's contactless technology means payment methods can take radically different shapes from the traditional rectangle consumers have used for about six decades, Templeton said.
People already use jewelry, handbags and clothing to express themselves. "There's no reason why a payment device can't be the same thing," Templeton said.
The DIY ecosystem
Even as Cash App looks to make Tags more widespread, there is still a market for smaller sellers hawking personalized accessories. Many of those listed on online marketplaces are larger and more custom than Cash App's Tags, making for an arguably more sensational payment experience.
When customers come to Adeyemo's online shops, he says they are looking for something they can't find anywhere else. "Someone is not trying to have a mass-produced item to tap and pay," he told MarketWatch. "They're trying to express who they are."
Orders that ask for unique colors, name engravings and shapes now make up nearly a third of Adeyemo's business. Recent requests have included Mexican peso designs, medallions and a glittery wand for a Sweet 16 gift.
"That's not something that a large corporation could really capture unless they're having the one-on-one conversations with each of these buyers, as I am," Adeyemo said.
He isn't sweating the threat of greater corporate interest in these sorts of products. For him, the demand for personalized payment accessories reflects someone's desire to make a mundane part of their day a little more their own.
"The real spirit of this whole trend, I believe, is the person's uniqueness," he said.
-Julian Torres
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