Report: Consumer payments preferences: perspectives on cash
We recently surveyed consumers across South Africa that prefer to conduct transactions with cash to better understand their reasons for choosing this method and whether the ability to pay in cash would influence their adoption of digital solutions.
In South Africa today, cash transactions still represent an overwhelming majority. Even though the banked population technically surpasses 85%, many still take out cash on a regular basis to conduct their daily transactions.
According to BankservAfrica, nine out of ten transactions in South Africa are still made in cash, with 95% of informal small business customers and 63% of formal business customers opting to pay in cash.
The data indicates a huge opportunity for businesses to increase their reach and promote financial inclusion to consumers currently excluded from accessing digital products and services. We recently launched CashPay to enable businesses to close the gap between digital and cash payments.
Learn more about consumer payments preferences and why cash is still king in our latest report.
Top findings
The top reasons respondents prefer to pay in cash range from convenience, to safety and as a way to bypass higher fees typically associated with card payments.
We also explored whether consumers would choose to adopt digital products and services if they could pay for them with cash. Of the respondents who said they don’t currently invest in crypto, for example, 58% said they would consider doing so if they were able to make a cash deposit.
Of the respondents that use products and services with digital accounts, such as online gaming, an overwhelming 96% said they would prefer to make deposits into their accounts using cash given the option.
Even as digital payment methods continue to grow and consumers become more comfortable making payments digitally, there remains a significant population of South Africans that continue to use cash for many day-to-day transactions. Businesses that aren’t able to collect cash payments today are missing out on a significant opportunity to better serve this user base.
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