The number of tap payments in Canada almost doubled since last year, according to a report from Moneris.
Chief Product Officer Rob Cameron says Canadian consumers are finally getting on board with tap payments in a big way.
“It was up 165% by volume, and double in terms of the number of transactions, so Canadians can tap credit or debit card on transactions under $100,” says Cameron.
He suspects banks supporting Apple Pay helped boost these numbers.
“Canadians started being able to tap their iPhones and Apple watches,” says Cameron. “While I’m sure those volumes are still relatively small, it helped educate the market even further, that why are you slowing down the line and inserting your card and typing in your PIN.”
Cameron says most cards in your wallet now support tap payments, with BMO recently announcing a tap debit card.
“We are seeing a really nice lift in that, and I think that that’s a good story for retailers because it moves things along, and we know for consumers, most would prefer to tap when we survey them,” says Cameron.
In the last quarter, consumer spending Canada wide jumped 5.5%, the seventh consecutive quarter of positive increases.
