Visa: covid pushes e-commerce and digital payments

Source: HW Upgrade added 21st Dec 2020

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Cash is less and less popular: the 23% of fibula have reduced use, while contactless payments of 28%. E-commerce is also growing: during the pandemic the 22% of Italians made an online purchase for the first time

of Alberto Falchi published on , at 12: 28 in the Innovation channel

Visa

Research conducted by GFK on behalf of Visa shows a surge in the adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in 4 European countries: Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Sample is based on 3. 200 people aged between 18 and 65 years. The preferred electronic payment method remains the physical card and, especially in Italy, the prepaid ones, which record an increase of 13% against 7% of the other reference countries.

Cash is no longer liked: digital payments are growing

The pandemic has had a disruptive effect on the payments sector and more and more European citizens are abandoning cash in favor of cards, especially contactless. According to the survey commissioned by Visa, in Italy the 21% of users decreased their use of cash, while contactless payments increased by 28%. Not bad for a country historically anchored to cash (in February the 80% of purchases in shop was paid “cash”) and who now seems to have changed their minds: most Italians (62%) no longer considers cash payments to be preferable to digital ones. A trend that is expected to continue: on 31% of respondents said they will decrease cash payments above 100 EUR.

An interesting aspect of the research is the fact that most of the respondents say they support neighborhood shops, with the 74% of Italians who claim to have increased purchases from local merchants compared to before . A value that probably also reflects travel restrictions, but the 58 % says they will continue to rely on local stores in the future too.

E-commerce grows by 25% in Italy

The pandemic has also accelerated the use of e-commerce in Europe, especially in the Bel Paese, where an increase of 25% (against the 23% of Spain and the 22% of Portugal and France). More than half of the Italians, the 51%, in fact made your first online purchase or increased attendance. This also applies to sectors that until a few months ago did not seem to interest Italians: purchases of food goods increased by 32%, he was born in 31% those of home hygiene products. The average amount of online spending in Italy was 137 euro, against a European average of 17 EUR.

The most used tool for online purchases? In Italy it is the smartphone (69%) , followed by the laptop (52%). The opposite situation in France and Portugal, whose inhabitants prefer computers.

Surely these data are heavily influenced by the period we are experiencing and by the many limitations to which citizens are subjected, but according to Visa we are at a point of no return: “ these changes are likely to persist as confirmed by the further propensity of respondents to reduce the use of cash for payments up to 18 € will decrease on average by 22% in favour of debit card (+ 17%), credit card (+ 8%), Mobile (+ 7%), wallet (+ 5%) and prepaid card (+ 2%); for payments over 100 € will decrease on average by 33% in favor of debit card (+ 17%), credit card (+ 12%), Mobile (+ 8% ), wallet (+ 6%) and pr epagata (+ 5%) “, reads the report.

“Throughout Europe, as in Italy, the Covid- 19 has put a strain on our companies, causing serious difficulties for people and companies, but at the same time it has accelerated the digitization process of people and companies “- underlines Giuseppe Arciero, Head of Financial Institutions Visa Italia – “Digital payments are playing an important role in responding to the crisis, helping consumers to continue shopping and supporting merchants in sales during lockdown through online channels or alternative methods such as take away or delivery. Visa is committed to supporting the development and adoption of digital payments in Italy and, through dedicated measures, to supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in their digital development path. A concrete example is the Digital Business Kit, accessible from our web portal, which we have developed with the help of some of the main players in the sector and aimed at small merchants who want to expand their business through online channels “.