The trend that has been registered over the last few months has finally gained expression in the data for the seventh week of deconfinement recently revealed by the knowledge solution REDUNIQ Insights: o Contactless continues to rise and its weight in global turnover is already 5 times higher than last year's figure.
Evolution of Contactless Payment
With regard to the use of Contactless technologyThe weight of contactless payments in total payments doubled compared to March, representing almost ¼ of total invoicing in June 2020, an increase of more than five times compared to the same period in 2019.
In percentage terms, turnover Contactless in the month of June grew by 278% compared to the same period in 2019, which represents a weight of 24% in total global business turnover, compared to 5% in June last year.
Despite the increase in the weight of Contactless payments is transversal to all business areas, a more detailed analysis of the report reveals that in pole position is the sector of Restoration with 71% of turnover (23% in 2019) being provided by this payment method, closely followed by Pharmacies with 64% (15% in 2019), Perfumeries with 53% (4% in 2019), Food with 52% (18% in 2019) and Hairdressers with 51% (6% in 2019).
For the greater speed, convenience and hygiene that the Contactless guarantees the customer and the merchant, this method of payment, which is carried out by bringing a contactless card to a contactless POS, is gaining the confidence of consumers, as the significant growth in the average ticket (average value recorded in each transaction) for this form of payment shows compared to the figures at the beginning of the year.
According to the document REDUNIQIn February this figure was close to 15 euros and in June it is now around 20 euros, in what appears to be behaviour that has become more widespread after the lockdown period.
Not unrelated to this process of democratisation of the Contactless REDUNIQ is making available to traders a automatic payment terminal (physical or mobile POS) with integrated contactless technology so that payment is processed safely and hygienically.
As well as enabling faster transactions and reducing the risk of the virus spreading, since the payment is made without the card (or wearables such as smartphones, etc.) and payment terminal touching each other, this Contactless POS also allows the merchant to reduce cash handling costs, increase average transactions and guarantee that the payment is actually made.
Despite a lull in the deconfinement, the Contactless was accompanied on the tide of growth by e-commerce payments. In the period of mandatory confinement, businesses reinvented themselves and moved from physical to online businesses, with a 333% growth in the number of subscriptions to online solutions. online payments for some traders when comparing the time between 13 March and 25 April 2019 and 2020.
If Contactless and the online payment solutions exceeded last year's figures, the same cannot be said of the overall turnover figures.
Evolution of Retail System Performance
Despite the dynamic recovery since deconfinement, turnover is still down by more than 25% compared to 2019, figures that the collapse in tourism and the decrease in foreign turnover, with falls of more than 80%, justify a year-on-year variation that is still insufficient.
To give you a more concrete idea, in January and February this year turnover was in positive territory with growth of 2% and 7% respectively. However, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse in March, April, May and June, when the percentages went into negative territory with losses of around 32% on average per month, particularly the 46% in April.
In this total cake, the tourism sector and, in particular, foreign turnover has a strong say. With borders closed and aeroplanes grounded, turnover fell from the positive territory in which it was circulating in the first two months of the year (average growth of 12.5%) to falls that between April and June were always above 80%.
Analysing the year-on-year change also shows that the regions most affected are those where tourism has the greatest weight. In June, Lisbon, Faro, Madeira, the Azores and Porto showed significant falls compared to the same period in 2019.
Despite the recent June holidays, which saw a greater influx of national tourists to regions such as the Algarve, which ended up boosting the growth of regional turnover (in that week alone, the Faro district increased its turnover by 29%), the recovery does not surpass last year's figures (51%). Lisbon (from 26% to 6%), Porto (from 17% to 4%), the Azores (from 31% to 5%) and Madeira (from 32% to 4%) also saw their inflow of foreign turnover fall sharply between June 2019 and the same month this year.
These graphs show the importance that tourism had in 2019 in the districts with the biggest falls - Lisbon, Faro, Porto, the Azores and Madeira - and the radical disappearance of this demand, which is essential for sectors such as Hospitality or the Restoration. The report also adds that in the next two to three years, these regions will be living with billing levels of the Retail structurally lower than in the recent past.
Also according to the data revealed, the months of May and June (until the 20th) this year, marked by different phases of deconfinement, indicate a drop in the average ticket to values lower than those of May and June 2019.
Despite the increase in the average ticket during the State of Emergency period (March and April), when they were higher than in the same period of the previous year. This growth was a reflection of the history of consumers who, forced into lockdown, went shopping much less often and spent more on each trip.
Time-wise, the growth in March and April eventually faded in the following two months to stand at 34.35 euros in June, compared to 37.26 euros in the same period last year.
In conclusion, the report explains that this trend may already be a reflection of the deepening economic crisis, which is dictating much more rational and economical purchasing behaviour.
To access the full report REDUNIQ Insights: Retail | The Face of Crisis and Recovery please click HERE
You can consult the other reports REDUNIQ Insights,
EN 
PT