Consumers Perceive Pre-Paying Before Picking Up Items as Safest Payment Option

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced consumers’ buying habits, pushing a higher share of purchases onto the internet and away from the physical point-of-sale.

According to a new survey from market research firm Packaged Facts entitled Digital Consumer Payment Trends in the U.S., consumers who pay directly from a mobile app are five times as likely to use this payment method more because of COVID-19 than to use it less.

Other payment methods whose use positively correlates with the pandemic include pre-paying before picking up items and paying with mobile phone/mobile app, while payment method losers include paying with cash, paying with check and paying by giving a card to the cashier.

Relatedly, while they are most likely to say they will use mobile apps more, consumers tend to perceive pre-paying before picking up items as the safest. Apart from giving a card to person at register, consumers are also at least as likely to say a listed payment method is safe as they are to say it is unsafe, Packaged Facts reported.

“These changes are shaping the present, but they will also shape the future,” said David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts. “Consumer shifts to digital payments are being met with a host of industry responses intended to meet consumer needs. Once in place, they will likely maintain that digital payment use and even expand upon it as long as those responses help consumers pay more easily, more quickly, and more safely than before.”

The coronavirus is not only reshaping how consumers pay, but the banking channels they prefer and the types of credit they use, too. Packaged Facts found that:

• Consumers using mobile banking are far more likely to claim they are satisfied with their primary banks’ mobile apps than to express dissatisfaction.
• Consumers are also more likely to choose — and feel safe using — mobile/digital spending and payment options because of the pandemic.
• Consumers cite credit cards as their payment option of choice “for the duration of the coronavirus situation.”

More information on Digital Consumer Payment Trends in the U.S. is available here.

Rockville-based Packaged Facts has been a leading publisher of market research in the food, beverage, consumer packaged goods and demographic sectors for more than 50 years.