Retail: sales via card payments on the rise, cash remains popular
Cards now account for almost two thirds of retail sales. According to the EHI research institute, mobile payments are on trend.
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Card payments continue to increase, but cash also remains popular. Debit and credit cards account for the largest share of payment transactions in the retail sector. In contrast, only a good third of the turnover of 495 billion euros is still generated with cash (33.8%). This is a drop of 1.7 percentage points compared to 2023 (35.5%). Horst RĂĽter, Head of Payment Research at the Cologne-based retail research institute EHI and author of the analysis, provided initial insights into the Payment Systems in Retail 2025 study at a specialist conference in Bonn on Tuesday.
In terms of the number of transactions, however, cash "remains the most popular payment method for the time being", RĂĽter explained. According to him, coins and bills were still used for more than half (54.6 percent) of the approximately 20 billion transactions in the retail sector in 2024. Customers generated 63.5 percent of sales with card payments last year. The remaining percentages are mainly accounted for by financial and invoice purchases as well as vouchers and prepaid cards with fixed amounts.
Within card payments, the Girocard remains the market leader in stationary retail with 41.5%. However, this corresponds to a decline of 0.9 percentage points. Overall, consumers used the debit solution of German banks and savings banks around 7.9 billion times in 2024 (up 5.9%). These figures were published by Euro-Kartensysteme (EKS) in February.
Cash withdrawals at checkouts on the rise
According to the EHI, international debit cards from Visa or Mastercard, for example, recorded growth of 2.8 percentage points to 6.9% of sales in the retail sector. Credit cards suffered a slight drop of 0.3 percentage points and landed at 8.3 percent. Together, both payment solutions now account for 15.2 percent of stationary retail sales. The EHI points out that their use is around three to four times more expensive for retailers than the Girocard. This could have an impact on the price level. Sepa direct debits account for 6.2 percent of sales.
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5.7 percent of all payments in bricks-and-mortar retail are now made using mobile devices. This means that customers pull out their smartphone with Apple Pay or Google Pay and settle the bill with a digital card stored there. The EHI speaks of a significant increase to 12.9 percent of all non-cash payment transactions. In the previous year, this figure was 7.5 percent. The new black-red coalition in the federal government wants to ensure that at least one digital payment option must be offered in addition to cash in everyday stores.
Cash payments via Girocard at retail checkouts increased from 12.31 to 13.57 billion euros. A not entirely inexpensive pleasure for retailers: the ATM replacement service is subject to a fee and cost them around 19 million euros in 2024 (2023: 17 million). Overall, in-store sales are back at exactly the same level as before the coronavirus pandemic, with an average of 239 physical purchases per person. The EHI collected data from 499 companies for the study, which will be published in full at the end of June. This corresponds to around 100,000 businesses from 35 sectors with a gross turnover of 314.8 billion euros.
(akn)
