News

Continued ability to pay with cash a 'broad concern' for US consumers

July 16, 2018

Payment choice and, specifically, the ability to use cash in-store are of broad concern for customers in the U.S., according to a new report from Mercator Advisory Group.

The research firm's latest Primary Data report, Payments, ATMs, and Prepaid: How Payments Align with Experience, helps to define and highlight consumer expectations for optimal experiences with merchants.

This second report from Mercator's new Customer Merchant Experience Survey builds on the overall experiential analysis of the first report, and explores shoppers' payments experiences in the context of what they value most in merchant interactions.

Some notable findings in the report:

• Consumers choose specific payment methods by merchant vertical, perceived security, and ease of use online.
• New payment technologies — including open mobile wallets, voice-activated conversational interfaces and instant financing at online or in-store checkout — are changing the way in which customers transact with merchants.
• Both prepaid gift cards and in-store ATMs offer opportunities to merchants beyond any fee revenues; they encourage some shoppers to spend more in-store or to visit more often.

"In our first report, we defined consumer expectations for optimal experiences with merchants," said Ken Paterson, Mercator vice president of special projects, and author of the report: "Within this context, this new analysis explores five broad drivers of shopper experience related to payments: payments choice; ability to use cash; payments security; transaction speed; and availability of gift cards/digital cards."