Trend in Switzerland: Payment apps are increasingly accepted

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In almost 80 percent of companies in Switzerland, customers can pay via bank transfer and invoice. Cash ranked third with a share of just over 60 percent, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced on Wednesday, based on the first assessment of its biennial payments survey.

The top 3 payment method list hasn’t changed much since the last survey. In stores where customers mostly make on-site payments, cash payment is the most commonly used method with a share of 92 percent.

Cashless payment methods have become even more popular among companies. The first and most important of these is payment applications, which are accepted by almost 40 percent of companies surveyed in 2023, compared to only a quarter in the previous period. Payment applications now rank fourth, leaving credit and debit cards behind.

Companies cited customer needs as the most important reason for adopting payment apps. Reliability, overall costs, and speed of registration and billing also played an important role.

Cashless payment methods such as debit cards, credit cards and payment apps are especially often accepted when payments are made directly on site. For this reason, they are frequently used in the hospitality industry, retail trade and public administration.

Due to the ever-decreasing number of ATMs, bank tellers and post office counters, 62 percent of companies fear that their cash supply and cash returns will be negatively affected in the future. Two years ago, this rate was 52 percent. A quarter are considering reducing their use of cash if the local cash infrastructure collapses further.

But right now, almost two-thirds of companies can still get somewhere to withdraw or deposit cash in less than ten minutes. For most people (90 percent) the trip takes less than 20 minutes.

The SNB is expected to publish its detailed payment methods survey in early 2024. For the research, approximately 1,750 companies of all sizes, language regions and industries were surveyed between mid-May and the end of June 2023. Large retailers and financial institutions were ignored.

(SDA)

Source :Blick