Global competition in the mobile and online payment industry continues to intensify, with both Apple Pay and Samsung Pay choosing the UK for their European launch. Meanwhile, in the last quarter of 2015, German-based Otto Group closed its mobile payment business Yapital. The dynamic developments in the industry in the UK and Germany are linked to and have the potential to influence the behavior of online shoppers throughout the continent.

In Western Europe, credit and debit cards have long ranked high in online shoppers’ preference regarding payment options, especially in countries such as the UK, Spain, France and Italy, where the share of credit and/or debit cards in online transactions cross the 50% mark by far. Furthermore, in countries such as Italy, mobile and online payments accounted for over 10% of all digital transactions, while in Spain over a third of online customers expressed openness and willingness to try mobile payment services. Awareness of mobile payments and wallets is also relatively high in the UK, especially among the younger age groups. Nevertheless, the sub-region lagged behind the neighboring Eastern Europe in terms of mobile payment user penetration, according to some surveys last year.

In several countries in Eastern Europe, including Poland and Turkey, different forms of mobile-device enabled payments gained speed in late 2014 and early 2015. Turkey ranked highest among them both in terms of current use and intended use of mobile payments, which stood at more than half and above two-thirds of mobile phone users respectively. In Poland, individuals using mobile phones for payment predominantly relied on PayU, while a lower, but still significant share opted for payments via SMS.

Further insights into the topic of mobile payments can be found in our report “Global Mobile Payment Methods: First Half 2015”, while details regarding the payment methods used by online shoppers in Europe are available in the report “Europe Online Payment Methods: First Half 2015”.