Consumers choosing tap-to-pay and cashless payments more often: Report
A new report from Cantaloupe, Inc., a digital payments and software services company, shows that consumers prefer tap-to-pay and cashless payments. The company just released its 2023 Micropayments Trends Report, which found that 67% of transactions last year were cashless and 53% of cashless sales were made using tap-to-pay.
The report looked at micropayments – any transaction less than $10 – at food and beverage vending and amusement machines, but the report shows interesting trends that operators can apply to their own c-stores.
Consumers spent more than $2.5 billion at food and beverage vending machines in 2022, a 19% increase over 2021. The data also found that cashless payments increased 11% from 2021. “Contactless” payment – payments made by tapping a card or mobile phone – made up an average of 53.9% of all cashless sales last year.
Customers also spent more on average when they have a cashless option. In 2022, Cantaloupe found that the average purchase made in cash carried a $1.36 bill, while customers paying cashless spent $2.11 per transaction – a whopping 55% more when they go cashless.
Canadian consumers have been used to tap payments for a while, but south of the border, U.S. customers are beginning to get on board with the quick tap. Cantaloupe’s report showed that EMV – the security standard named for the companies that created metallic chips in cards: Europay, Mastercard and Visa – became the “new norm” at food and beverage vending machines in the U.S. According to the data, EMV payments increased more than 400% from January to December last year, accounted for more than $500 million in sales and made up 52.98% of total transactions by the end of the year.
For 2023, Cantaloupe predicts that EMV will grow by 6 to 7% in the cashless transactions payments share. The research company also expects the average ticket size for cashless transactions to increase to $2.40, or by 6 to 10% in 2023.
The entire report can be found here.
