PayPal usage around 90% in Europe and the U.S.

A world without online payment has become as unimaginable as a world without eCommerce itself. As people shop more and more online, they carry ever less cash in their pockets and make a significant share of their everyday payments on their various digital devices. In Germany, for example, 70% of consumers use online payments, according to the Statista Global Consumer Survey. Countries like the UK, France, or Italy also reach shares above 50%. Out of the different types of online payment, eWallets are among the most popular systems. According to Statista Global Consumer Survey results, in Germany and Italy, they are even the most widely used online payment method. Moreover, eWallets are the second most frequently offered payment method on the store side globally: 74% of online stores in the eCommerceDB database accept payments by eWallet. Within the landscape of eWallet providers, there is a clear leader in the Western world:

The U.S. eWallet pioneer PayPal is by far the most widely used service in the five leading economies in our comparison. In the European countries Germany, France, Italy, and the UK, 90% or more online payment users paid with the PayPal service in the 12 months before the survey. The U.S. is slightly behind these figures, but with a user share of 82%, PayPal is still by far the most popular service. U.S. Americans seem to use a greater variety of eWallets, though. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay all reach shares above 25% in the U.S., while in France, for example, all three services are used by less than 15% of respondents. In Germany, Amazon Pay is the only other service in this comparison which reaches user shares above 25%. It is worth mentioning in this context that PayPal has a strong focus on Western economies. The eWallet reality in Asia, for example, is completely different. Chinese consumers, for example, mostly use Alibaba’s payment service Alipay (93%). PayPal only reaches a share of 11% in China. South Korea’s leading service is Naver Pay and kakaopay with user shares of 72% and 68%, respectively.

You want to find out more about the world of online payments? Check out the new eCommerceDB Report Series on payment providers! Next to PayPal, eCommerceDB has published Payment Provider Reports on Amazon Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Sofort, Mastercard, American Express, Klarna, Giropay, and Affirm!

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December 2022