Visa is a partner of the study, in the Central Eastern European region, including Romania.
The study shows that while shopping 51% of Romanian consumers tend to pay with a payment card. The top reason for choosing cash is when digital payments are unavailable at a given store or service point. That’s the view of one third of the respondents who often pay with cash. It is worth noting that digital payments dominate as Romanians’ preferred payment method for online shopping. Half of respondents paid for their last in-store purchase with a card or using phone, smartwatch or another device. When asked a similar question about their last online purchase, only 14% of respondents answered they paid cash on delivery.
The study also shows that stores offering digital payment methods are clearly perceived in a positive way by Romanian consumers – as many as 77% of respondents believe they are modern and 72% of them think they are customer-centric. There is still a room for digital payments development in Romania. When responders from Romania have been asked to recall the last time they wanted to pay by card but couldn’t, 16% of them could not find such option in store and 29% said that the POS terminal was defective. Based on the survey results, digital payments are unavailable mainly at traditional marketplaces (48%), paying builders or for home repairs (39%) and at a hairdresser, barber or beautician (35%). Romanians also said they cannot pay digitally for taxi trips (31%).
“We believe that an open and more connected world is the one where consumers and businesses enjoy greater choice and flexibility. That is why we are promoting a world with greater access to fast, secure and reliable digital payments. In practice, it means that Visa supports the payment ecosystem in the CEE region, including Romania, in a way that the number of terminals accepting card payments increases and consumer daily payment experience improves since new payment products and solutions are introduced on the Romanian market in partnership with our partnering banks, acquirers and other financial institutions”, said Elena Ungureanu, Country Manager Visa in Romania.
Romanian consumers would like to be able to pay digitally everywhere, and these expectations developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, so the initiatives helping small and micro businesses go digital are even more important now.
The study findings show that for Romanians money is a means of ensuring a sense of independence and freedom of choice. The survey also confirms the trend of great popularity of digital banking in the country. Usually, Romanians prefer to contact the bank remotely – 70% of respondents use internet banking at least two-three times per month and a slightly higher percent of Romanian consumers (73%) use their mobile banking just as often. They perceive the banking services as a way to manage their money. Romanians control and plan their expenses, also being partly interested in ways to increase their wealth.