In-App, Instant, In-Store Payments Incoming

The FIS
FIS
Global Payments Report 2023 has some findings that confirmed some of my suspicions about the direction of payments travel in the U.S. These included the shift towards digital wallets, which became the single leading payment method among U.S. consumers shopping online in 2022 (with 32% of e-commerce transaction value), perhaps a reflection of consumers’ increasing trust in mobile wallets, as well as the growth of account-to-account payments (A2A), where the U.S. follows the global trend. A2A accounted for 9% of e-commerce transaction value in 2022. This is projected to grow to 11% by 2026, fuelled in part by the imminent launch of the Federal Reserve’s FedNow A2A network.

Alternative Networks

Many other markets have developed retail payment options that are an alternative to the card model in developed markets, but they have been slow to evolve in the U.S. retail. There are many European alternative payment methods built on A2A rails. Take a look at Blik in Poland, for example, where more than 90% of the population have a ban account and there are more than 50m cards in circulation. In the first quarter of this year, more than two-thirds of e-commerce payments were by Blik, which also accounted for a third of in-store contactless payments, some 300% year-on-year growth.