Retail payment trends to keep an eye on this holiday season
This article was originally published by innovatingcanada.ca on December 5, 2024.
By Stephen Yun, Senior Analyst, Market Insights, Payments Canada
Stephen's areas of focus include the Consumer Payment Methods and Trends and Payment Behaviour Tracking studies, and leveraging research insights to create a consumer/business payment narrative and drive business action for his business partners. Stephen has more than 20 years of experience leading marketing and customer experience research. He holds MBA and BBA degrees from the Schulich School of Business (York University) specializing in marketing and finance.
In 2023, 21.7 billion retail payment transactions were made in Canada, totalling $11.9 trillion. That’s a lot of payments and a lot of money spent by Canadians.
As we enter arguably the busiest holiday shopping period of the year, here’s a closer look at the retail payment options that consumers are using. These trends are important for businesses to understand, to inform their decisions on how to send and receive payments, ensuring they meet their current and prospective customer's payment needs and preferences.
According to Payments Canada research, Canadian e-commerce — using web-based storefronts and applications via computers or mobile devices to obtain goods and services from merchants — grew to $71.6 billion last year, or 546 million transactions in 2023. The top categories of online purchases included clothing, restaurants/fast food, groceries, electronics and personal beauty products.
Close to three in five Canadians (57 per cent) made an online purchase in the past month (up from 55 per cent in 2022). Credit cards continued to be the preferred choice for e-commerce transactions at 57 per cent followed by PayPal and debit cards at 18 per cent each.
When looking at all payments, credit cards (33 per cent) and debit cards (30 per cent), made up 63 per cent of total payment volume. Electronic funds transfer (EFT) represented 15 per cent of payment volume, followed by cash at 11 per cent, online transfer at six per cent, and prepaid, ABM and cheque each at two per cent.
Prepaid cards showed the greatest transaction value growth among cards at 10 per cent. Canadians reported using prepaid cards to make payments quickly, to receive discounts/loyalty rewards and to use their own funds. The average prepaid transaction value was $69. Open-loop, reloadable prepaid cards are popular among younger consumers because many of them feel that prepaid cards represent a more economical and effective way to manage their spending than credit or debit cards.
Cash transaction volume increased by 15 per cent, while transaction value increased by four per cent. The average cash transaction value was $26, slightly lower than 2022 at $29. Almost half of all Canadians (49 per cent) frequently used cash in 2023. Many people still rely heavily on cash, particularly the elderly, the unbanked and those who use cash for low-value payments.
Online transfers (such as Interac e-Transfer and PayPal) volume and value grew by 14 per cent and 20 per cent respectively as the fastest-growing payment type (136 per cent and 160 per cent respectively). For the first time ever, we saw online transfer usage surpass cheques based on volume for business payments.
Thirteen per cent of Canadians used smart devices or social media for placing an online order or initiating a payment in a given month in 2023 (up slightly from 11 per cent last year). The following types of smart devices or social media were used for online purchases in a given month: Alexa/Amazon (three per cent), Google Home (three per cent), Instagram (three per cent), Facebook (three per cent) and Apple Siri (two per cent).
Overall, Canadians were generally satisfied with their payment experience buying online in 2023. Over half of all consumers (56 per cent) were satisfied with the time it took to execute the payment when making a payment through a website or payment app (up from 50 per cent last year). However, over one in ten Canadians (13 per cent) experienced not being able to use their preferred payment method while shopping online (up slightly from 11 per cent last year).
Having a diverse selection of payment options is important in attracting and retaining customers. If you’re a business looking to learn more about the payment preferences and behaviours of your customers this holiday season, I encourage you to take a look at Payments Canada’s Canadian Payment Methods and Trends report.
