Payments Ecosystem: Diminishing analog payment use—as well as the battle for share between entrenched electronic payment methods and emerging challengers—will intensify the battle for customer spending this year.

This inaugural study ranks eight leading premium travel credit cards offering 49 emerging features, weighted by demand from prospective customers.

Canadian mobile penetration and bank access have created a high-potential environment for both proximity and peer-to-peer mobile payments. But entrenched payment habits and monopolization have created a slow growth environment that will force providers to adapt.

The credit score startup is in talks to raise funds at a $5.5B valuation. Expanding its platform will enable it to exploit surging credit card adoption in the country.

Co-brand card issuers and brand partners have an opportunity to reimagine their offerings in the pandemic’s wake. Leaning on newfound digitization and shifting spending habits can help providers tailor their offerings in ways that widen their net, grow volume, and appeal to the maximum number of customers.

The pandemic not only altered consumers’ shopping behaviors, but it also changed how they pay for goods and services.

The corporate credit provider’s new premium offering is a one-stop shop for small businesses’ financial needs—boosting Brex’s value proposition and diversifying its revenue streams.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) services have emerged in recent years as more retailers, including Walmart and Macy’s, began offering consumers financing options when checking out.

The pandemic accelerated payments industry digitization across the entire landscape, as merchants turned to ecommerce to keep doors open, consumers eschewed cash in favor of electronic and contactless payments, and payments technology providers rapidly developed and launched new solutions to keep up.

During the coronavirus pandemic, many consumers have preferred to pay local businesses using traditional payment methods over contactless channels. According to May 2020 polling from Podium, the highest share of US internet users surveyed (42.9%) said they preferred using a credit card reader, with cash coming in second at 18.4%.

The coronavirus pandemic has been disastrous for the vast majority of Europe’s retailers. Digital retail has benefitted, though. In Germany, we expect retail ecommerce sales to rise 16.2% this year, and total $92.33 billion.

US bank branches are still shuttered amid the pandemic, but consumers are more likely to conduct their banking online, according to recent research.

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.

As with video viewing, digital technology has taken a large role in teens’ shopping without altogether replacing older methods. We estimate that 61.8% of 14- to 17-year-olds in the US will be digital buyers next year. Though substantial, that’s lower than the penetration rates of all other age groups younger than 65.

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