As 2019 comes to a close, we look at the world of payments over the past year, and elements played a pivotal role in the industry this past year.
eCommerce
eCommerce continues to reign supreme in the world of payments as consumers favor the comfort and convenience of online shopping. Shops have moved to eCommerce models, either delivering to customer’s doorsteps, or arranging for items to be picked up in-store.
The largest segment in digital payments is Digital Commerce, valued at $3.391M USD this year alone, according to Statista.
Digital Payments
The adoption of cashless payments has shown benefits to merchants and consumers alike, saving time, money, and hassle for both parties. A recent report expects non-cash payments to reach a $1 trillion USD value by 2022!
According to Statista, the total transaction value of global digital payments in 2019 amounts to $4.137M USD – up from $3.595M in 2018. That’s a lot of growth in the digital payments segment, and the trend is expected to continue. Projections for 2024 see an industry valued at $6.699M.
Digital payments account for both online payments from eCommerce sites, as well as the use of mobile devices to pay in store. This accounts for a lot of growth and adoption of eWallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
The number of users of digital payment methods is up to 3,756,200 in 2019, a 6% increase over the year before. This means half the world are using digital payment methods of some sort!
Globalizing Businesses
With the steady adoption of eCommerce models, the industry has seen a similar adoption of cross-border payments. More and more businesses are making their products and services available online, and the industry – particularly payment processors, and fintech companies – have been keeping pace by facilitating payments made in a range of currencies, with minimal impact to the merchants’ bottom line.
Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies may not have been the hot topic in 2019 as they were in years past, but they continue to be created and circulated throughout the globe. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most commonly-recognized of those available, but new options are regularly coming to market.
Facebook announced plans to create their own global digital currency called Libra. While it has been met with some skepticism, it will be interesting to see how this new currency shakes up the global monetary and banking systems.
Looking Forward
With all of the upward trends across the payment sector, and announcements of game-changing new ways to make and receive payments, we look forward to seeing what 2020 has to bring.
Stay tuned for our 2020 outlook, where we make our predictions for what next year will look like in the word of payments.
