Accelerating the move to mobile in Europe

The way that European consumers make payments is in the midst of a huge transformation. Consumers are increasingly demonstrating a clear preference for touch-free payments, with 80% of face-to-face Visa payments in Europe now being touch-free[1]. This shift in habits pre-dates the global pandemic, but there is no doubt that the trend has accelerated since our lives altered so dramatically earlier this year.

Yet there is also another change taking place: the move to mobile payments. Already we are seeing some countries embrace mobile wholeheartedly. In research conducted by Visa across six European countries, we found that 34% of consumers already use mobile wallets – and in Norway specifically this number rises to 84%[2].

Our research paints a picture of why consumers are opting to pay by mobile. Mobile wallet users cite convenience as the main reason[3]. Given that mobile allows you to pay touch-free and without the need for a physical card, this is perhaps no surprise. And Visa payments made on mobile phones are underpinned by our token technology which plays a vital role in protecting consumers against fraud. In fact, earlier this year we saw a reduction in fraud of as much as 25% on Visa accounts issued in Europe compared to the same period in 2019[4].

The research also provided a clue as to where the future growth of mobile payments will come from given many people remain unaware of the full benefits. Just under three-quarters (72%) of consumers who hadn’t used mobile payments weren’t aware you can use mobile wallets to make purchases in apps, saving the need to dig out your card and enter your information online.

One of the other potential barriers in some countries is that not all businesses currently accept mobile payments. Visa is working hard with multiple partners across the continent as part of our Untapped initiative to continue to increase the numbers of merchants who allow customers to pay by mobile.

Visa is working closely with partners in the consumer tech industry to make paying by mobile devices possible all across Europe. For example, this week we've announced that Visa, Google and certain card issuers are working together to expand Google Pay and make it available in ten more countries across Europe. This will mean that consumers with Android devices in countries such as Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania will benefit from this simple and secure way to pay with their Visa card.

When paying by mobile, consumers will also be able to enjoy higher contactless limits than those available for physical contactless card payments – meaning they are even less likely to need to physically touch the PIN pad.

Following this launch, nearly 30 countries across Europe now benefit from Visa and Google’s touch-free mobile payment technology. This is an exciting development and we are sure that it will pave the way for even more consumers across the continent to switch to mobile payments.

[1] Visa data (September 2020)

[2] Ipsos MORI research European Mobile Wallets Quant report Nov 2020 - UK, Poland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway. Ipsos MORI interviewed an online sample of 6045 adults aged 18-75 in the UK, Poland, Italy, Germany, France and Norway using a 15-minute online survey between the 1st – 18th October 2020. Data has been weighted to the known population proportions for age, gender, region and working status within each country.

[3] Ipsos MORI research European Mobile Wallets Quant report Nov 2020

[4] Visa data (April 2020)