Cash Use Down 23% in Mexico, Cards Fill the Gap

Shoppers in Mexico strongly prefer shopping in-store to shopping online. Seventy-one percent of local shoppers reported making their most recent retail purchase in a brick-and-mortar store — far more than consumers in other countries. However, this choice does not mean local shoppers eschew digital shopping and payment features, however.

Digital innovation is nonnegotiable, and merchants must provide an assortment of digital features to win customers. The average local shopper used 10 such features during their most recent purchases. These features include buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) options, digital coupons and free shipping.

These are some of the key findings detailed in the “2023 Global Digital Shopping Index: Mexico Edition,” a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration. Our research draws from a survey of 13,349 consumers and 3,124 businesses studied across six key economies: Brazil, India, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. We asked consumers about how they prefer to shop, pay for and acquire their purchases. Then we compared their answers to the digital shopping and payment features local merchants provide to determine how well merchants are meeting connected shoppers’ changing demands.

Key findings from our research include the following:

Most consumers in Mexico say buying retail and grocery products in physical stores is cheaper — possibly because they do not have to pay for shipping.

Shoppers in Mexico are 36% more likely to shop in-store than the average consumer in the six countries we studied. Why? Consumers in Mexico who shop in-store do so for one of three reasons: lower prices, immediate access and easy navigation.

Cards are slowly displacing cash for in-store purchases and may provide a digital payments on-ramp that will boost online and omnichannel purchases.

The use of cash is declining as local brick-and-mortar shoppers opt for contactless payments — especially contactless credit and debit cards. In-store shoppers’ use of cash is down 23% year over year. Meanwhile, the share of consumers using contactless credit and debit cards is up significantly.

To earn consumers’ trust and encourage their transition to digital, Mexico’s merchants must make security features and refund policies more visible and transparent.

Many local merchants provide the digital features consumers say they want, but their customers often do not realize it. Our data finds a gap between the share of merchants offering these features and the share of consumers aware these features are available. For example, 66% of merchants provide enhanced data protection, but just 57% of local shoppers know merchants offer it.

Merchants must tailor their shopping and payment offerings to meet local demand. Mexico’s shoppers place a premium on tight data security, easy-to-navigate online stores, digital deals and pickup options. They are increasingly searching for merchants that can provide those features. Download the report to learn how eCommerce merchants in Mexico can win over shoppers looking for more.