Usage of digital payments reached 78% in 2020 – how it impacts lenders

If you haven’t noticed, the era of in-person transactions is fading in the rearview mirror of a society that has recently weathered its first global pandemic. Today, thanks to the internet, smartphones, and other digital technology, commerce can occur anywhere at any time—usually with just a few clicks.

In the wake of COVID-19-related shutdowns and the mass migration to working from home, even the most reluctant adopters of digital technology are now competently using video messaging platforms, mobile apps, and web services as many continue working in a remote environment.

The click-of-a-button ease of access that we’ve become used to while shopping on Amazon and ordering an Uber has shifted consumers’ expectations of payments.

According to Pymnts, “Consumers expect payment capabilities to be embedded in the services they use and to be able to execute transactions seamlessly, without having to fetch card information or toggle between apps or screens. In a very real sense, consumers are becoming the point of sale wherever those sales take place. These dynamics were already present before the pandemic hit, but the crisis has been a force multiplier for these trends, hastening the obsolescence of cash and greatly increasing the share of retail commerce transacted online.”

 

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