E-Retail Sales Will Account for $3.3 Trillion in 2018, Juniper Research Notes

The value of consumer spend on remote payments for digital and physical goods will surpass $3.3 trillion this year, up 10 percent from 2017’s total of $3 trillion, according to a new study from Juniper Research.

The new research, “Mobile & Online Remote Payments for Digital & Physical Goods: Opportunities & Forecasts 2018-2022”, argues that alternative payment mechanisms would comprise an ever-increasing proportion of online spend.

PayPal already accounts for 20 percent of mobile and online physical goods transactions made outside China, while the success of Alipay and Weixin Pay within China means that these two players combined now account for 45 percent of global payment volumes.

The study also highlights the major pain points for merchants and consumers. Retailers are struggling to resolve issues around customer identification within the broader commerce framework. “Payment processors and other key stakeholders need to work closely with merchants to ensure they can recognize individual consumers, regardless of device and whether they are purchasing online or offline, to deliver the optimal experience across the retail lifecycle,” research author Dr. Windsor Holden pointed out.

European merchants need to be aware of the implications of PSD2 on card-on-file, meaning they would need to be “white-listed” by consumers for payment details to be stored. Secure Customer Authentication (SCA) obligations could potentially adversely impact on conversion rates by increasing friction at checkout.

Furthermore, the research stressed that not only should merchants localize supported payment mechanisms (such as iDEAL in the Netherlands and credit card instalments in Brazil), but also the entire payment flow. Juniper recommends that they work with payment processors to test optimal flows for target markets.

(For more information visit https://www.juniperresearch.com.)