Hamburg-based secondary market research firm, yStats.com, released a new publication “Europe Online Payment Methods: Full Year 2016” that summarizes new developments to online payments in Europe by citing statistics, projections and surveys about 20+ countries. The report reveals that bank card and digital payment services are the top online payment methods on the regional average, but this varies by sub-region. Furthermore, payment fraud is a prevailing concern of consumers across Europe.
Preferred payment methods tend to vary dramatically across various European sub-regions and amongst advanced and emerging markets. yStats.com cites a survey in their report revealing that, for example, a high share of Russian online consumers prefer to pay by bank card, with this number increasing through 2016, while the share of online consumers who used cash on delivery declined. Additionally, more than half of surveyed online consumers in Poland prefer to use transfer via payment systems. Notably, other emerging markets such as Greece, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Czech Republic have a large share of online consumers who still prefer the cash on delivery method.
Amongst advanced markets in Europe, online payment preferences are also diverse. The yStats.com report reveals that almost two thirds of online consumers in the UK use debit cards to make a purchase. In other advanced markets such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and France, bank cards also remain the most preferred online payment method. In contrast, online consumers in Germany still prefer invoicing when making online purchases, although its share decreased by small single digits between 2014 and 2015. With over 50% of online shoppers in Germany abandoning a shopping cart in 2016 due to a lack of preferred payment method, it is important that these varying attitudes towards online payment methods across different markets be noted.
The trend of fraud and security issues is a prevailing concern across Europe, affecting both online and mobile payment adoption. A major share of online consumers surveyed in the UK, Germany, Spain and Greece rated security concerns as a top priority in payments. Research cited in yStats.com’s report estimates that in general, Internet users from Eastern European countries feel more safe using mobile payments than Internet users in Western Europe.
