"Germans have significantly changed their payment behaviour during the Corona years and have largely stuck with it after the pandemic. They still prefer to pay by card," said Horst Rüter of the Cologne-based retail research institute EHI on Wednesday, summarizing the results of the latest study on "Payment Systems in Retail 2023". There are no signs of a trend reversal back to more cash.
According to the EHI study, a total of around 2022 billion euros was generated in stationary retail in 465, an increase of 35 billion euros compared to the previous year, which was still strongly influenced by Corona. The share of card payments rose again by 0.9 percentage points to almost 60 percent or 277.9 billion euros. In 2022, the Girocard was once again at the forefront, accounting for 41.9 percent of sales alone. Around 37.5 percent of purchases were still paid for in cash, a drop of one percentage point compared to the previous year.
On average, every person in Germany went shopping in a brick-and-mortar store 215 times last year, according to EHI. That added up to 17.9 billion transactions, an increase of 7.8 percent over the previous year. However, trading was still a long way from the pre-Corona level of 20 billion transactions.
According to EHI, the proportion of mobile payment transactions via smartphone or smartwatch increased significantly last year. In the meantime, 5.4 percent of all card-based payment transactions are processed with a card digitally stored in the smartphone, in most cases via Apple Pay, Google Pay or the apps of the savings banks and cooperative banks, the experts reported. A year earlier, the figure was just under 3 percent.
However, contactless payment with the presence of the card still has a big advantage. A good 71 percent of all card payment transactions have recently been carried out in this way. Only in less than a quarter of the payment transactions, the card is still inserted into the terminal, it said.