While the past few years have seen more consumers embrace digital payments, it seems as if the coronavirus pandemic has made the cashless society even closer than ever.
As we have reported in the past, developing countries are growing their percentage of cashless payment market the most Moreover, in places like Russia, India and China it seems as if even more people are doing away with physical money.
It is against that background that JCB Contactless announcing a 30% year-on-year increase in usage by its global card members in July 2020 is quite interesting.
The company noted that e-commerce has become more popular over the course of the last year. Spending at the top 50 online retailers outside of Japan increased by 15% year-on-year for February 2020 and e-commerce spending peaks occurred in January, July and December in 2019 outside of Japan.
“With the pace of change being forced by recent events, there is an even greater opportunity to accelerate the evolution of payments,” said Tsuyoshi Notani, managing director at JCB International.
“This means adopting a growth mindset and not retrenching to ‘the old’ normal. The payment industry is fulfilling an increasingly more important role in the economic recovery phases, and as such, it is essential to find ways to diversify the way in which we meet customer needs alongside our partners.
“There are now many options for people to pay for goods and services and preferences vary region to region and country to country. There is a marvellous opportunity for businesses to innovate and create engaging shopping experiences, but it does mean payment networks need to keep one step ahead by utilising market intelligence and providing fresh solutions to meet customer needs.”
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