Remote card payments—or card transactions initiated online— is growing to catch up with face-to-face payments according to a U.S. Federal Reserve report.
Card transactions initiated remotely hit $3.29 trillion in 2018 and went up over 20 percent year after year from 2015 through 2018.
The recent report highlights that remote card transactions are proliferating fueled, in part, by the massive migration to online shopping platforms—and the increasing use of cards for subscriptions and recurring payments.
But while remote card transactions creep up on face-to-face card payments, the latter still leads in terms of the number of transactions.
The Fed Reserve counts 86.1 billion face-to-face transactions initiated in 2018, up 13.4 billion recorded in 2015. In comparison, remote card payments jumped 14.3 billion within the three-year focus period.
Moving on to the values of face-to-face payments versus remote card transactions (between 2015 and 2018), remote payments surged 14.4 percent year after year to $3.29 trillion. On the flipside, face-to-face payments grew 4 percent year after year from 2015 to 2018 to almost $3.3 trillion.
Still, remote card transactions have been snowballing way faster (4 times faster) than face-to-face card payments— all transactions between 2012 and 2018 considered. These findings are not a surprise, given the evident increase in the rate of online and remotely initiated transactions.
ACH Payments also Surge: ACH Debit Beats Check Payments— For the First time
Automated Clearing House or ACH payments are also getting more popular according to the Fed Reserve’s report.
The number of ACH transactions— both debit & credit card ACH—went up 6 percent year after year.
Meanwhile, the value of ACH transactions increased 7.2 percent year after year within the three-year focus period.
2018 was also a special year for ACH payments. For the first time, the payment world recorded more ACH debit transactions than check payments.
The Federal Reserve counts a total of 16.6 billion ACH debit payments compared to 14.5 billion for checks.
ACH debits have really come a long way— looking back two decades ago in 2000 when checks outshined ACH (at 42.6 billion versus 2.1 billion respectively).
Nothing is written in stone
In the payment ecosystem, nothing is written in stone, what matters tomorrow depends on the method customers find the most convenient depending on their needs.
For business owners, the key is to be diverse if you are going to satisfy most of your customers.
Author Bio: Blair Thomas has been a music producer, bouncer, Screenwriter and for over a decade has been the proud Co-Founder of eMerchantBroker, the highest rated high risk merchant accounts processor in the country. He has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a hurricane, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. He currently calls Thailand his home with a lifetime collection of his favorite books.