77 percent of merchants say real-time payments will replace cards

Comprised of responses from executives across the retail, digital goods, hospitality, telecom and travel sectors, the benchmark also revealed that 65% reported interest in accepting real-time payments, up from 57% in 2017.

Other key findings of the research:

• Of the merchants that believe real-time payments will replace the use of payment cards over time, 77% in the US hold this view, despite the reliance on plastic cards in the market. In the Netherlands, 100% of the merchants surveyed hold this view following the country’s success with online banking payment schemes.

• 78% of merchants believe real-time payments can help lower costs, more than a 20% increase from 2017 (57%).

• 78% of merchants believe real-time payments will deliver improvements in customer service, up from 59% in 2017.

• 82% of retailers and 80% of telecoms companies see the potential to leverage real-time payments to deliver enhancements to their customer experience.

• 82% of merchants in Asia are most positive about real-time payments delivering enhancements to their customer experience; in India, Malaysia and Thailand, more than 90% hold this view.

• 61% of merchants believe they are at a greater risk of a data security breach than a year ago; 22% experienced theft of data in the same timeframe

• 59% of merchants see abandoned baskets as a bigger concern than fraud losses and chargebacks; at 64% each, the retail and digital goods sectors are most pragmatic about the realities of fraud risk.

For “2018 Global Payments Insight Survey: Merchants”, Ovum and ACI Worldwide partnered to run a 22- question survey across a global panel of respondents, with a focus on retail banks, billing organisations, and merchants. For more information about ACI Worldwide, please check out a detailed profile of this company in our dedicated, industry-specific online company database.