Forrester’s data shows that digital payments is the most used payment method in the US today. In 2023, 69% of US online adults said that they had used a digital payment method over the past three months to make a purchase. That’s well ahead of the just over half of online adults who used a credit card or who used cash. That said, it’s important to remember that cards often are the underlying payment instrument in growing digital payment scenarios.
So what digital payment methods are consumers using? PayPal is still the most used digital payment method in the US. In 2023, 40% of US online adults used PayPal over the past three months to make a purchase. But its consumer adoption rate has hovered around 40% since 2019. By contrast, only 24% of US online adults have used Apple Pay recently to make a purchase, but Apple Pay’s adoption has more than doubled since 2019. Meanwhile, adoption for each of the “buy now, pay later” leaders is still in the single digits, despite their prevalence on retailer checkout pages.
To dive into more analysis and see the details, see our latest report on The State Of The US Consumer And Payments. Forrester clients can also connect with us via inquiry or guidance sessions.
