Updated on December 10, 2021
For awhile, there’s been numerous attempts to get the general public to switch to using various electronic (and proprietary) payment systems. Of course, Paypal’s been a popular online payment method for years. Recent years have seen a spike in smartphone app-based payment methods: Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc.
However, according to a recent survey by market research firm Ipsos and banking giant ING, the most popular online payment method is still an old-school one: credit cards. They make up nearly two-thirds of online payments. That’s whether credit cards are stored on a site (auto-billing, retail sites like Amazon, etc.) or manually entered. The infographic below outlines the survey’s results.
Despite a fair amount of advertising, payment systems like Apple’s, Google’s, and Amazon’s don’t seem to be quite as popular. Amazon Pay apparently eclipsed Apple Pay and Google Pay; however, all three combined don’t even crack double-digits as a percentage.
Why do credit cards endure online?
I have a few guesses why credit cards are still so entrenched online, at least for those answering this survey:
- PayPal, despite its drawbacks, is entrenched, familiar, and accepted by a variety of online vendors. Additionally, everyone accepts credit cards; the same isn’t true for Google/Apple/Amazon’s systems.
- Google, Apple, and Amazon still seem tied to their respective companies/products. I’d imagine Apple Pay is more popular among Apple device users versus, say, owners of Fire tablets.
- Banks and credit unions offer online bill payment services, apps, etc. these days.
- It’s easier to just enter a credit card number online, versus deal with a middleman that doesn’t deliver an obvious benefit to the average user.
- Credit cards are a lower learning curve versus learning a new piece of software.
- Entering a credit card will be a onetime process for either popular sites like Amazon or for those using recurring billing (utility bills, Netflix, etc.). Thus a reason stored credit cards are the largest category.
Of course, the heavier competition for Apple, Google, and Amazon-based payment services seems to be offline. That said, from an anecdotal point of view, I mainly see people still pay for purchases with credit/debit cards or cash (checks seem to be a rarity nowadays). The most I’ve seen smartphone-based payment methods used to pay for anything is at Starbucks.
Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay
