COVID Pandemic Drove Customers to Use Digital Payments

COVID Pandemic Drove Customers to Use Digital Payments

Retail Tech Insights | Friday, November 25, 2022

Seventy-eight per cent of Australians who currently use digital wallets as debit or credit cards said the COVID-19 pandemic pushed them towards using digital means of payment.

FREMONT, CA: Seventy-eight per cent of Australians who already use digital wallets like debit or credit cards claimed the COVID-19 outbreak motivated them to switch to utilising digital payment methods. The results of GetApp's most recent study have been made public, including what consumers think about digital wallets, how they use them, and their benefits and drawbacks.

GetApp gathered and analysed the responses of over 1,000 respondents, and the results showed that 53 per cent of the respondents indicated they use digital wallets right now. Seventy-nine per cent of those who responded who presently use digital wallets do so for financial transactions using debit or credit cards. They are used by 43 per cent of respondents for loyalty cards, 40 per cent for ID cards, and 23 per cent for ATM withdrawals. Additionally, Apple Pay was named as the preferred digital payment system by 58 per cent of respondents who use digital wallets in place of debit or credit cards.

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The rise in the adoption of digital wallets has been mostly attributed to a combination of statewide lockdowns and consumers making transactions through internet channels. Seventy-eight per cent of respondents, out of the number who use digital wallets as debit/credit cards for payment purposes, claimed that the epidemic drove them away from using cash and towards more digital ways of payment, with 40 per cent choosing somewhat and 38 per cent choosing strongly.

Approximately six per cent of all respondents claimed they had previously used digital wallets but would not do so going forward. In terms of this percentage, the majority of respondents said they prefer using physical cards (57 per cent), followed by other factors like doubts about data security (30 per cent), dislike for being dependent on their phones (25 per cent), and reluctance to save sensitive information on smartphones (23 per cent).

Seventy-eight per cent of respondents who have used a digital wallet in the past say they prefer using an online wallet over a more conventional one. Participants believe that digital wallets make it simpler to prove their identity (26 per cent), and 18 per cent believe that since the information they store is typically encrypted, digital wallets may help reduce fraud.

When asked about the drawbacks of using digital wallets, half of the respondents (50 per cent) said they were worried about digital wallets increasing reliance on cell phones. A lost device may result in data compromise for 40 per cent of users, while 38 per cent of users reported being unable to use payment methods if their phone battery dies. Twenty per cent of those who responded to the study indicated they had never used them but were curious. However, 22 per cent of respondents claimed they have never used them and will not do so in the future.

Out of those who haven't used digital wallets and aren't interested in doing so in the future, 60 per cent of participants said they are concerned about data protection as the reason they are hesitant to use them. In addition, 59 per cent of respondents said they didn't want to store important data on their smartphones in case it was stolen. Digital wallets, according to 50 per cent of respondents, are superfluous, 34 per cent don't want to become even more technologically reliant than they already are, and 11 per cent find digital wallets difficult to set up.

The majority of the Australian respondents, according to poll results from the first section of this article, are currently using digital wallets. According to a content analyst at GetApp Australia, online businesses might perhaps benefit from this digital change to offer a more seamless shopping experience for customers, foster brand loyalty, and increase sales.

This change in customer behaviour and the wider trend toward digitalisation may present new opportunities of equal magnitude for many online firms.

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