In-store shopping will remain a crucial part of the retail sales funnel in China, even as ecommerce players continue to rack up record gross merchandise value (GMV). Pre-pandemic, ecommerce was already disrupting brick-and-mortar retail, but over the past year, retailers began to innovate more offline, leveraging new and existing technology.

Though still in the early stages of rollout, 5G technology could bring about positive changes to the retail industry, as retailers seek to maintain their digital transformation efforts and bring consumers safely back into stores in 2021. Retailers will use their IT investments in 5G to enhance the customer experience, both in-store and online.

The US has been relatively late in introducing contactless cards, which are credit or debit cards that include a near field communication (NFC) chip that can complete a transaction simply by tapping on a reader. But those cards are starting to arrive in the US now that most point-of-sale (POS) systems have the NFC capabilities to accept them.

Canada is classified as a “high-adoption” country in our global mobile payments forecast.

People in France were early adopters of smart payment cards, including chip-and-PIN and contactless technology. That has stifled proximity mobile payment adoption, with just 15.6% of France’s smartphone users expected to pay with their phone in-store in 2019.

Less than 13% of smartphone users in Germany will use proximity mobile payments this year—one of the lowest rates in Europe. User numbers will increase slowly, but privacy concerns and the popularity of cash and card payments will curtail adoption.

The global payment market will hit a major milestone in 2020: 1.06 billion people are expected to make a proximity mobile payment. But even as countries like China and Sweden take steps toward a cashless society, most of the world will still rely on cash and cards.

This report features our latest forecasts for proximity mobile payment users in Latin America, with breakouts for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. It also examines emerging trends and key drivers fueling regional market movements.

Mobile payments—both proximity payments and P2P transfers—continue to grow rapidly in volume. User growth is slowing, and increased spending will primarily come from existing users spending more often via mobile phones.

Mobile payments have been thought to be on the cusp of widespread adoption for several years now. But most consumers have responded to the technology with a noncommittal shrug.