A new report from Visa indicates how Canadian consumers are choosing to pay, and what they value in their payment methods. Going cashless and contactless continues to gain traction as consumers move toward a digital-first mindset — driven by security concerns.
The findings show promise for contactless payments, as 64% of consumers said they used contactless payments whenever possible in the past three months. The global average was 58%. Also noteworthy is the 56% of Canadian consumers that reported “offering contactless payment methods as one of the most important safety measures stores can offer.”
“2020 was a year dominated by an immediate consumer shift to digital-first commerce. In so many ways, Covid-19 accelerated the urgency for secure, fast and seamless ways to pay and be paid,” the report noted.
“…While online shopping and the use of digital payments were common in many parts of the world before the pandemic, they quickly became far more critical around the globe to limit the spread of the disease. We expect this trend to have a lasting impact on how we pay, long after the pandemic is over.”
Ditching cash was another trend as 49% of consumers said they don’t use cash as much and 42% said they shop online when possible. Canadian online shopping figures in the study were still lower than the global average of 52%.
The report, The Visa Back to Business Study 20200 Outlook, details on a global scale how businesses and consumers are adapting to the pandemic. Overall, the study indicates that Canadian SMBs are “the the least likely of all markets surveyed to have adjusted the way they operate their business in the past three months.”
Canadian SMBs indicated that 56% have adjusted how they operate, compared to a global average of 82%. Canada’s figure, however, is rising as it was just 44% over the summer. In general, SMBs reported (62%) that it will be 10 months before their business if fully operational over the next six months; 16% reported they’d never be fully operational.
