[eMarketer] The rise and rise of contactless payments

Covid-19 pandemic has not only shifted consumers’ shopping behaviours but also altered their modes of payment for goods and services.

In US, the number of those using contactless payments is poised to grow to more than 100 million this year according to a forecast by eMarketer.

Pre-pandemic, a sizeable number of US citizens were using proximity mobile payments regularly and stood at an estimated 72 million in 2019 according to eMarketer estimates.

However with the outbreak of the pandemic and as consumers explored various forms of payment, this number jumped 29 per cent to reach 92.3 million in 2020.

Oscar Orozco, eMarketer director of forecasting at Insider Intelligence: “Contactless payment is not just taking the form of traditional credit and debit cards waved in front of a payment terminal, but more so from mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and retailers’ mobile apps.”

Digital financial services giant Mastercard revealed a 40 per cent jump in use of contactless payments in the first quarter of 2020, as did Visa that reported a 150 per cent increase in use of contactless cards in US in March last year.

Read the full eMarketer article here

www.emarketer.com