New research into the payment preferences of 28,000 consumers, conducted by Nexi, the European PayTech, reveals how online shopping habits continue to evolve across Europe.

The survey reveals the different stage that European societies are at in their payment journey: the Nordics, long seen as the pacesetter in digital payment transformation, increasingly use mobile payments, including digital domestic wallets like Vipps and Swish; the DACH region demonstrates a clear preference for e-wallet services like PayPal; while consumers in southern Europe still value physical payment cards and even cash.

Tommaso Jacopo Ulissi, Head of Strategy and Transformation at Nexi Group comments: “Europe’s payment landscape has many commonalities – consumers across the board continue to indicate expectations for secure, simple and fast payments – but there are also key differences. Retailers and independent software partners and integrators must recognize that, if they are to grow, their customer experience offering must reflect local payment preferences across cards, e-wallets, invoicing, and even emerging technologies like A2A payments. This must be done while ensuring resilience and reliability are assured as standard.”

The report revealed that only 6% of Europeans surveyed have not shopped online in the last 28 days, with eCommerce firmly seen as convenient (25%), a money-saver (20%), and a time-saver (13%). Over half of us (57%) want online retailers to be more sustainable however, reducing the level of packaging (52%), establishing environmentally friendly return procedures (27%), and even increasing delivery times to allow for more streamlined logistics (21%).

Ulissi continues: “Sustainability offers retailers a significant opportunity. Those that are quick to recognize consumer preference for enhanced sustainability can differentiate themselves as being forward thinking and better attuned with what their customers want. Sustainability is then transformed from a box-ticking exercise into an effective customer acquisition and retention tool.”

For the first time since the pandemic, travel has retaken the top spot as the highest spend category for consumers, with physical goods in second, and services in third. Notably, in the services category, spend on streaming services skyrocketed last year, accounting for 37% of overall service spending. It has overtaken tickets (25%) and insurance (24%) for the first time since these reports began.