Raynor de Best
Research expert covering finance, insurance & real-estate, internet & e-commerce
Get in touch with us nowDigital payments refer to any form of cashless payment or payments conducted without banknotes or coins in either an online or offline environment. This can include mobile payments (digital payments performed with a mobile device), fintech (such companies tend to be at the forefront of payment digitalization), or relatively young trends like buy now, pay later (BNPL) or cryptocurrency. Out of all these cashless options, which developments are noteworthy to know about for the United States?
Apple and Google to lead the future mobile payment charge
The number of people who use Apple Pay is expected to grow by nine million between 2022 and 2026. Such estimates are based on what limited information is available from the company, as well as overall trend developments when it comes to smartphone adoption or overall retail spending trends. That said, it is assumed Apple Pay currently is not as big as PayPal in the U.S. According to a 2021 survey, five times more respondents stated they have at some point used PayPal than Apple Pay. A forecast investigating in-store mobile payments, however, claims the U.S. would be the world's largest market when it comes to the overall volume of such transactions by 2027. Services like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, the source adds, would be at the heart of this development, especially in public transport networks.All eyes on buy now, pay later
PayPal also topped a download ranking of BNPL apps for the United States in 2022, ahead of Klarna and other BNPL competitors. Up until April 2022, the number of downloads of the Klarna app was nearly half of that of the PayPal app - a significant change compared to earlier years, when PayPal was downloaded relatively more often. Younger generations were not using buy now, pay later as often in 2020 as their older counterparts, but this had changed by June 2022: Over 61 percent of respondents ages 18 to 24 said in 2022 they had used a buy now, pay later service – a figure only slightly higher than other, old age groups. First indications regarding an upcoming recession are that most U.S. respondents were considering using BNPL because of inflation.
