Yet almost one in three adults making purchases online or via mail-order still use open invoices for transactions. Between January 2015 and January 2016, the share of respondents using traditional methods dropped from 61% to 57%, while the share using digital payment systems jumped from 39% to 43% according to the survey findings published by emarketer.com.
In terms of payment method preferences, better-educated consumers and those in higher-income households were still more likely than others to buy with a credit card. Female shoppers were much more likely than men to use an open invoice, while males were more likely to shop with a credit card, and both these patterns persisted in 2016, the survey found. Males also outnumbered women in the group using digital payment schemes; thus, 47.2% of men used such payments, as compared with 38.3% of women.
Digital payment usage in 2016 among adults 18 to 39, and those 40 and older, were at 42.4% and 42.8%, respectively. Moreover, digital options were used almost uniformly across all income levels.
In previous years, usage of digital payments was more common among savers, but is now just as widespread among non-savers. A similar turnaround has occurred among individuals who make some purchases on credit. In the past, credit buyers were less likely than non-credit buyers to use digital schemes such as giropay or PayPal; in 2016, they were more likely to do so.
The survey was conducted by Creditreform Boniversum, a research company, and the Bundesverband E-Commerce und Versandhandel, an ecommerce federation.
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