Online card payments continue to rise

Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 13:18 by Mike Price

The number of people making purchases online, using credit or debit cards, is having a marked impact on the payments industry, according to data published this month by Barclaycard.

Twenty two per cent of all card purchases made in 2014 were channelled through an e-commerce site or service and analysts expect that this could rise, to account for almost a quarter of the market by the end of 2015.

As well as looking at the rise of shopping online in the UK, the report also found that different parts of the e-commerce market are responsible for different levels of growth in card usage.

In particular, the activity of paying for takeaway deliveries through mobile and tablet sites and apps has helped to boost card usage, encroaching on a part of the market that used to be dominated by cash payments.

Report spokesperson, Chris Wood, told This Is Money that the convenience of being able to order a takeaway from a smartphone or tablet, pay for it using a card and then have it delivered straight to the customer's door was very appealing for British consumers, hence the rapid growth in this type of payment.

There are also dedicated platforms, like Just Eat, which let people place online orders with an array of local takeaway outlets, which would not normally be capable of offering an online infrastructure of their own.

Just Eat alone was responsible for £1 billion in sales over the course of 2014, which is not only good news for the company itself but also for the businesses with which it partners.

Online shopping is no longer just about ordering goods to be delivered in the coming days, but can provide the immediacy that is required to make it the ideal platform for takeaway deliveries.