Consumer appetite for digital wallets growing in Europe

Europeans are showing an increased interest in digital wallets and almost a third (31 percent) say they’re likely to use a digital wallet on a mobile device, 5 percent more than the previous year. Marketing and loyalty firm Aimia released the research this week at Money20/20 Europe and it’s based on a survey of more than 20,000 consumers across 11 markets, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, U.K. and U.S.

Italian consumers are most likely to use digital wallets (47 percent), followed by those in Spain (39 percent), U.K. (26 percent), France (22 percent) and Germany (19 percent). Consumers said they are most likely to use wallets to store coupons/vouchers (65 percent) or loyalty cards (63 percent) and to make cashless payments (56 percent). For those unlikely to use digital wallets, 38 percent cite concerns about data security.

“It is clear digital payments will play an important role in the way consumers go about their daily shopping habits, impacting the future retail landscape across Europe,” said Marc Allsop, senior vice president and head of global business development at Aimia. “However, we still have work to do before digital wallets become a universal method of payment … technology and payment providers need to work hard to improve customer confidence.”

---