Almost halfway into the second year of Coronavirus and the adoption of contactless payments continues to increase, according to a study dubbed the CardFlight Small Business Report.
Since March 2020, the researcher has kept track of the payment method’s performance, and recent analysis shows a bright future for contactless.
For instance, in the week of July 18, the volume of contactless transactions jumped 597.7 percent compared to March 2020 results. Contactless adoption has increased steadily every week from late May, only taking a slight dip in the week of July 11, when usage growth dropped to 538.7 percent from March 2020 results.
Meanwhile, the per-week increase in transactions for the week of May 30 was 500.5 percent compared to findings in March 2020.
The Driving Factors
This steady adoption has been fueled by two primary factors, according to CardFlight’s CEO, Derek Webster:
- More and more plastic cards are now contactless-ready
- Card owners are more conversant with groundbreaking contactless payments options done through smartphones like Apple Pay.
Furthermore, customers who’ve used it before are showing a liking towards the user-friendliness of ‘tap to pay,’ and retailers are more willing to collect payments made through contactless avenues, says Webster.
“We expect this performance to continue and inspire the growth of contactless payments in the coming months and years,” he adds.
CNP & Card-Present Payments Make a Comeback
More findings from CardFlight’s study show CNP and card-present payment volumes also made a comeback in the week of July 12, jumping 12 percent and 9.5 percent in that order from the week before.
Put side by side with March 2020 results, CNP payments increased 88.6 percent during the week of July 18 to outshine card-present transactions, which only increased 82.9 percent.
Final Words
With both avenues thriving, we hope to see contactless payments rise above their challenges and become a staple for customers and businesses.
According to the researcher, small and medium businesses should develop more creative methods to meet customers’ evolving needs amid a persistent pandemic and the eruption of the Delta variant leading to a sudden increase in new Covid-19 infections and threatening to bring back the stay-indoor restrictions.
Author Bio: Payment industry guru Taylor Cole is a passionate payments expert who understands the best payment providers. He also writes non-fiction on subjects ranging from personal finance to stocks to Cryptopay. He enjoys eating pie with ice cream on his backyard porch, as should all right-thinking people.