The value of digital wallet payments will be more than $12tn in 2026, as more payment types are added.
According to Juniper Research, this will amount to a 60% rise on 2022, when $7.5tn is expected to be transacted on digital wallets, which sit on smartphones.
Juniper found that acceptance of digital wallets by merchants is on the up and that application programming interfaces will increasingly connect banks, enabling international growth through large, cross-border ecommerce merchants.
New products being introduced by mobile wallet suppliers will include buy now, pay later offerings on digital wallets, as well as the ability to use cryptocurrencies.
Juniper said PayPal is the leading digital wallet provider, followed by Alipay, WeChat Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Juniper researcher and co-author of the report, Damla Sat, said the digital wallet market is heavily saturated, and that differentiation is important to suppliers.
“We have ranked PayPal as an established leader as it has successfully grown an expansive, differentiated offering; leveraging its strong merchant acceptance by expanding quickly into buy now, pay later and QR code payments, as well as signing partnerships with key merchants to scale its innovative solutions.”
Digital payments technologies received an unexpected boost in demand during the height of the pandemic. As the government set rules to prevent physical contact, consumers were forced to use digital payments services.
PayPal, for example, said in 2021 that the pandemic led to a 24% spike in total active customer accounts, as consumers turned to online shopping in growing numbers.
