According to a new report released by Germany-based secondary market research experts from yStats.com in April, “North America Online Payment Methods 2020 & COVID-19’s Impact,” the pandemic is helping the growth of contactless payment methods in the USA and Canada. The report also unveils the most popular payment methods used by online shoppers in North America and summarizes the latest data on mobile wallet usage.
Coronavirus drives contactless payments up, and payments revenues down
The outbreak of COVID-19 has multiple implications for the digital payments market in North America. In-store, consumers are increasingly using contactless payment methods such as cards and mobile wallets in order to avoid handling cash. According to a March 2020 survey cited in the yStats.com report, three in ten respondents in the USA have used contactless payments for the first time during the pandemic and more than two-thirds among the survey group planned to continue doing so in the future. Online, purchase transactions of certain product segments such as groceries and food delivery are surging, while cross-border and online travel transactions are down. Overall, total payments revenues are expected to decline in 2020.
Credit card is the leading payment method in North American E-Commerce
The top payment method used by online shoppers in both the USA and Canada is credit card. Two-thirds of E-Commerce sales in Canada were settled via this method. Debit cards and digital wallets ranked next in the USA, with digital wallets predicted to overtake credit cards in a few years’ time, according to a forecast cited by yStats.com. In Canada, e-transfers via Interac is another popular alternative payment method, which also has received a boost during the coronavirus.
Mobile wallet adoption is rising in North America
Mobile wallets are growing in popularity among U.S. and Canadian consumers. In the USA, close to half of consumers either already use a mobile wallet or are interested in using one. The leading mobile apps used for in-store purchases in the USA were Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, while in terms of remote transactions PayPal, Amazon Pay and Visa Checkout were the top digital wallets. Shoppers in Canada are also warming up to mobile payment solutions, with nearly one in three connected consumers being comfortable with using mobile or digital wallets as of 2019, according to data included in the yStats.com report.
