Italians continue to use cash more than other payment instruments for purchases in shops, especially when it comes to low-value expenses, however the use of cash, which still occurs in half of transactions today, has progressively reduced. And electronic payments are increasing overall, also supported by the growth of e-commerce. Cards, in addition to representing the main alternative to cash for transactions in shops, also continue to be the most used payment instrument, in terms of both number and value, for online purchases.
This is what emerges from the ‘Report on consumer payment habits in Italy: evidence from the 2024 ECB survey’ published by the Bank of Italy. The use of cash at physical point of sale (POS) remains higher than the euro area average, although its share has continued to decline in recent years: in terms of number of transactions, cash payments represent 61% of all POS transactions (versus 69% in 2022 and 82% in 2019), compared to 32% for card payments (26% in 2022; 16% in 2019) and around 4% for mobile payments (2% in 2022). In a comparison between countries, Italy remains one of the euro area countries with the highest use of cash. In terms of transaction value, cash payments represent 49% of total POS purchases (in line with 2022; 58% in 2019), compared to 39% for card transactions (43% in 2022; 32% in 2019) and 5% for mobile payments (2% in 2022). Acceptance of cards and other non-cash payment methods by merchants rose to 87% from 80% in 2022, and the share of online payments grew significantly, to 24% of total non-recurring transactions from 16% in 2022. Cards remain the most used tool for online payments (51% by volume and 52% by value).