A new report released by Germany-based secondary market research firm yStats.com, “Global Online Payment Methods: First Half 2016,” reveals the varying preferences of online shoppers worldwide with regard to payment methods. According to Yücel Yelken, CEO & Founder of yStats.com, “Multiple surveys show that security is a major consideration of global consumers when shopping online or using mobile phones to make payments online and in-store.”
Credit card and digital payment systems, such as PayPal and AliPay, are the top two payment methods used by online shoppers worldwide, though in regions such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, cash on delivery still plays an important role, according to the findings of the new yStats.com report. Mobile payment methods are also gaining popularity both for online and in-store transactions, especially among younger adults.
When choosing a method to pay for purchases made through digital channels, shoppers in multiple countries rank payment security among their priorities. Even in advanced online retail markets, such as the USA, one quarter of households with Internet access reported having avoided buying goods or services because of security concerns in 2015. When making mobile payments, more than half of global consumers were worried about safety of their personal information, according to another survey cited in the yStats.com report.
The research also shows that global online and mobile payments continue to see numerous innovations and regulatory changes, highlighted in the yStats.com publication. For example, Japan introduced regulation for virtual currencies, a method which is known to one-fifth of Internet users in this country, of whom more than a third are interested in using it, mainly for online purchases. In Europe, a launch of a Eurozone-wide instant payment system is underway, which would enable making payments 24/7/365. In terms of payment fraud prevention, biometrics is seen as a major innovation that will impact the future of digital payments.
