Mobile wallets may not be replacing cash as yet, but that doesn’t mean cash is still the consumer go-to.
About 20% of consumers (or 1 out of 5) are not presently carrying physical cash in their physical wallets, according to the American Express Digital Payments Survey released this week.
Additionally, nearly half of consumers (46%, to be precise) noted that they never or “rarely” use cash to make their purchases, the study of more than 1,000 consumer participants found.
The decline in cash use has been attributed to a multitude of factors, most commonly the rise of online shopping coupled with a growing consumer comfort with digital payment methods—70% of consumers stated that they had used a digital method of payment, such as one-click checkout and P2P apps.
However, online purchases still has its detractors; for example, security concerns will prompt 40% of consumers to abandon an online purchase, according to the survey, a problem online merchants are working on.
The majority of merchants surveyed (58%) noted that an increase in security enhancements had a “very significant impact” on their sales.
Take a look at the full survey here.