Cash is King, Isn’t It? Payment Preferences and Switching Intentions of German Customers
Abstract
In China, the traditional wallet with cash and credit cards is a distant memory as everything is done through the same app: WeChat. In Germany going out cashless and the idea of paying for coffee with the smartphone seems – at least partly – like science fiction, although research shows that cash is considered “inconvenient”. Starting from a reflection on the two diametrically opposed examples, we attempt to firstly investigate the current payment preferences of German customers, before we secondly elaborate aspects regarding switching to alternative payment methods, i.e., mobile payments. We are wondering: Why do German customers prefer cash payments? and Which factors could affect the switch from cash to mobile payment methods for German customers? To answer these questions, we conducted a three-round Delphi study with eight experts and found, for example, that cash is still preferred because it is more practical as it is accepted by every merchant in Germany. Regarding the switching intentions, one major finding is that large retailers and other key players need to adopt mobile payments as their preferred system, so that customers can become more familiar with it.
Origin | Files produced by the author(s) |
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