More online purchases and contactless payments in stores in the 2021 sales

The upcoming January sales will be more digital than ever. Spain has accelerated the adoption of digital payments during the health crisis, according to a study by GFK and published by Visa in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, which analyzes the impact of Covid-19 on the use and payment habits of the consumer.

Specifically, lhe acceleration of digital payments will highlight in these sales some of the trends that have emerged in recent months and that are expected to continue in the near future. One of them is e-commerce, which has had a growth of 52% in Spain during confinement, with 23% of the Spanish consumers surveyed who have started shopping online with the arrival of the pandemic.

Despite this, online commerce has been one of the most prominent trends in recent months. Physical commerce is also undergoing a profound transformation and has adapted in a very short time to respond to consumer demands, who are asking for new, more agile and secure digital forms of payment. Proof of this is the increase in the use of contactless payments in businesses, where it has experienced a 45% growth since the beginning of the pandemic, as a result of a greater need for security, convenience and trust on the part of the consumer. In view of this, businesses have reacted quickly and have increased the acceptance of this type of payments by 55%, according to the perception of the Spanish surveyed.

Increase in local commerce

Support for local commerce is another trend that this pandemic has brought to light. One of the sectors most affected by the economic closure has seen in the Spanish consumer a possible lifeline for their business. And it is that Spain is the southern European country that has increased its purchases in local businesses the most during the pandemic (77%), among other reasons, due to the help to local businesses, the convenience and the quality of the product. This trend is expected to have come to stay, as 7 out of 10 Spaniards surveyed affirm that they will continue to buy in local stores.