Consistent with prior years of MRC study, merchants continue to accept four to five different payment methods on average from their customers. Card and digital wallet payments are the top two acceptance methods, each used by roughly three quarters of eCommerce merchants worldwide. Most merchants accept debit transfers and mobile payments as well. While those top acceptance methods are widely used by merchants in all regions, some methods are used much more in certain markets than others: for instance, cash on delivery is accepted by more than one-third of merchants in APAC, versus less than 25% of merchants in other regions. And gift cards and vouchers are far more popular among North American merchants than those operating elsewhere.
As consumer expectations and preferences regarding digital payments evolve, so too, must merchant acceptance offerings. Among the fastest-growing new payment methods are digital wallets (currently accepted by 72%), mobile payments (52%), realtime payments (42%) and buy now, pay later (32%). The survey shows that a large share of merchants now accepting these types of payments added them within the past year. Adding new methods is especially important for merchants looking to improve the customer experience and/or reach new customers. In fact, these are the top two motivations merchants cite in the survey for adopting new acceptance offerings.
Overall, merchants overwhelmingly agree that the rise of realtime payments represents a positive development for the financial ecosystem, since real-time payments can complement credit card payments. 83% of merchants agree with this sort of statement and only 4% disagree.
Overall, merchants overwhelmingly agree that the rise of realtime payments represents a positive development for the financial ecosystem, since real-time payments can complement credit card payments. 83% of merchants agree with this sort of statement and only 4% disagree.