Card Payments in Retail Continue to Rise, New Study Reveals

Recent findings indicate a significant shift in payment preferences among consumers in the German retail sector, with a marked decline in cash transactions. A study conducted by the Cologne-based EHI Retail Institute highlights that approximately 63.5% of retail sales, amounting to EUR495 billion in 2024, were made through card payments. This reflects an increase of 1.7 percentage points compared to the previous year.

In contrast, the share of cash transactions decreased to 33.8%. Other payment methods, including financing, invoicing, and gift vouchers, accounted for the remaining figures. Notably, in 2019, prior to the pandemic, cash payments still constituted over 46% of retail sales.

Despite the decline in cash's share of total sales, it remains the most frequently used payment method in terms of transaction volume, with cash utilized in over half of the approximately 20 billion transactions recorded in 2024--54.6% to be precise. This marks a recovery from the pandemic's low point, where transactions fell to around 16.6 billion. The data shows that more than 44% of purchases were made using a card, with this figure having doubled over the past five years. The Girocard continues to dominate as the leading method for card payments.

Additionally, the adoption of mobile payment methods via smartphones and smartwatches has increased, with 12.9% of card transactions now processed this way, a significant rise from the 7.5% recorded in 2023. These methods include popular services like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Consumers are also increasingly taking advantage of cash withdrawal options while shopping, with the total amount withdrawn reaching EUR13.57 billion--a rise of over 10% compared to the previous year. The EHI study utilized data from 499 companies, representing approximately 100,000 businesses across 35 different sectors, generating a combined gross revenue of EUR314.8 billion.