Shoppers at The Co-operative Group have predicted the death of cash within the next 10 years.
A report from the society, titled ‘The Way We Pay’, found that 65% of shoppers from a sample of 2,000 it interviewed thought they would only need a mobile phone to pay with by 2025. As it stands, two-thirds of all transactions at The Co-op stores are still made using cash.
Contactless payments soared by 1.4 million to 11 million from February to March this year, up 15% month on month and almost three times that of 12 months ago.
“As our research shows, shoppers predict the death of the wallet in 2025, as 65% believe their phone will be all they need to pay for daily goods in the future,” it said.
Retail chief information officer Cheryl Marshall said contactless technology was perfect for convenience stores as shoppers bought fewer items and speed was important.
“Cash is still king as people enjoy carrying money. However, we predict that by 2025 mobile payments will overtake cards and cash,” Marshall said.
The Co-op was the first retailer to roll out contactless payment points in 2014 with 12,000 contactless payment points in 2,800 outlets.
But despite the increasing prevalence of contactless bank cards and methods like Apple Pay, there was still a reluctance by some shoppers to use it, the retailer’s research showed.
And despite the spending limit of £30, many shoppers opted to use chip and pin services for transactions over £10, with trust being the main barrier.
The average convenience basket for contactless payment was £8.66 compared with £18.16 for chip and pin, with spending on fuel at £9.38 compared with £23.28 for chip and pin.
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