The old paper-based tools for making and accepting payments are being swept away by the rise of e-commerce, mobile commerce, smartphone apps, and mobile payment registers.
Recently, BI Intelligence published an 80-slide, 45-chart deck detailing how a wave of innovation is changing the way we pay. These are the five key points from that presentation, which explain the shift away from old payments technology (i.e., cash, checks, and physical card swipes).
1. The use of cash and checks is in decline.
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2. In fact, for the first time, Americans are using their credit and debit cards more frequently than cash. Credit and debit account for 42% of transactions and cash, 40%.
3. Why is everything shifting away from cash and checks? E-commerce is on the rise, as well as online bill pay. On the whole, transactions in which the credit card is not physically present - i.e., e-commerce - are a growing share of all payments.
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4. Also, people are beginning to make payments with their phones in stores. Those payments are ultimately powered by credit cards on file with their mobile payment apps, like Google Wallet.
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5. Finally, small merchants are adopting tools, like Square and PayPal's attachable credit card readers. These turn their phones and tablets into payment terminals. In the past, those business may have only accepted cash.
BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on mobile computing, digital media, payments, and e-commerce. Only subscribers can download the individual charts and data sets in Excel, along with the PowerPoint and PDF versions of our presentation, The Future Of Payments.