Even before COVID-19, contactless payments were experiencing significant growth. While the United States has been slow to adopt contactless compared to other nations, COVID-19 has contributed to new efforts by consumers to adopt contactless. Other markets, such as Latin America, serve as a growth bed for new payments opportunities and fintechs. By working with the right partner, organizations can offer consumers contactless payments that provide them with convenience and speed during these times and beyond.

To talk more about the adoption of contactless payments before and during COVID-19 and why many consumers will never turn back, PaymentsJournal sat down with Scott Johnson, SVP at Galileo, and Sarah Grotta, Director of Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.   

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Even Prior to COVID-19, Contactless Adoption was Growing

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a major catalyst for the adoption of contactless payments in both the United States and globally, which is largely due to heightened fears that touching cards, paper, or point of sale (POS) terminals could be unsafe. Even so, there was substantial contactless adoption before the pandemic began.

The following chart, provided by Mercator Advisory Group, comes from a survey conducted prior to the pandemic of over 3,000 U.S. consumers who were asked about their use of contactless payments. More specifically, survey respondents were asked about their use of contactless debit payments. 

At the time of the survey, 25% of consumers said they had conducted a contactless payment with their debit card. Among those who had adopted the use of contactless debit cards, the highest portion were using a combination of contactless card transactions and mobile contactless payment apps, though others reported using just one of these contactless methods. Since then, COVID-19 has had huge impacts on consumers’ lives and buying habits.

COVID-19 is Accelerating Changes in Consumer Behavior

Previously, consumers in the United States were relatively slow to adopt contactless compared to those in European countries, but this is changing. A Mastercard study recently found that contactless transactions in the United States grew twice as fast as non-contactless in the grocery sto...