The rise in online shopping is often cited as a major reason for the declining usage of cash around the globe. However, a recent report claims that over twice as many online retailers accept cash as those who accept crypto.
The 2023 Global E-commerce Payments And Fraud Report was based on a survey of over 1,000 global merchants of various sizes, conducted in November and December 2022.
Cash came out as the fifth most accepted method of payment, after bank transfer/direct debit, digital wallets such as ApplePay, bank cards, and mobile payment solutions such as Amazon one-click.
45% of those merchants surveyed accepted cash payments, which perhaps even more surprisingly, is 14% more than the results from the previous year’s report.
Crypto is languishing in 10th place at 19%, although this had increased from 2% in the previous year. More popular than crypto are buy now pay later, gift cards/vouchers, cash on delivery (which is listed as a separate option to cash payments), and other localized payment platforms such as AliPay.
What’s more, another survey commissioned by Paysafe in April 2022, covering 11,000 consumers across the Americas and Europe suggested that 47% of people would prefer to pay with cash online and 44% of people would use online services more often if cash payments were available.
Paysafe offers a service called Paysafecash for online merchants to accept cash payments by issuing a unique barcode for the purchase, which can be scanned and paid at one of a million local points of sale in over 55 countries.
In Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico, Google allows a similar system of cash payments via local stores, with purchase then being delivered within 10 minutes. And Amazon Cash allows customers to top up their account via barcode or mobile number at local stores.
Even Uber allows customers in 51 countries to pay with cash directly in the app, although one would imagine that simply paying the driver in cash when he drops you (or your food) off would be a less complicated transaction.
The good news for crypto fans is that this year’s increase in merchants accepting cryptocurrency represents an 850% growth from last year. So although the dream of crypto as a realistic substitute for fiat may not have come to fruition quite as quickly as we were originally promised, it does seem that things are finally moving in the right direction.
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