How do Australians pay?

A recent survey by the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) detailing records about every transactions individuals made for a week, as well as value, payment method, channel (online or in person) and type of merchant provided key information about Australian payments preferences and attitudes.

Cards

Australia is among the top-ten non cash markets in the world. The market share of card payments is increasing, from 9% in 2013 to 52% in 2016. However, mobile payments only accounted for 1% of the number of Point-Of-Sale (POS) transactions over the week of the survey (around 2% of in person card payments).

Cash

The use of cash is slowly decreasing, accounting for only 37% of all transactions, compared with 47% in 2013 and 69% in 2007. However, cash is still used for smaller transactions, being the most common payment method for transactions of $10 or less. In particular, older Australians and lower income households still make a substantial share of their payments in cash. Yet, even this figure is declining, with older Australians increasingly adopting non-cash transaction methods.

Cheques

According to the 2017 World Payments Report, Australia will be phasing out of all cheque payments in the near future. Using cheques as a form of payment in itself is declining, accounting for only 0.2% of payments made by participants in the 2016 survey, compared with 0.4% in 2013.

Digital currency

Digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are slowly gaining traction in Australia. In March 21, 2016, the Australian government announced that it would address the “double taxation” of digital currencies under the GST. This refers to the fact that if you used a Bitcoin to pay for coffee, you would be charged GST for both the coffee and Bitcoin. The new policy has removed some of the frustrations of the fintech community.

What does this mean?

The movement from paper based methods such as cash and cheques towards electronic payment methods creates a huge market for the provision of payment services. Stores, both physical and online, are incentivised to deliver a number of payment services for the ease of their customers. This doesn’t include just merely offering a range of payment methods, but also payment services, such as recurring billing, anti-fraud technology, SMS notifications and the ability to track payments.

This is where Paydock comes in. By offering an easy-to-integrate RESTful API, Paydock is able to help you. Whether you are an eCommerce platform, a developer or an integration specialist, we will allow you to make the most out of your payments ecosystem.