Digital Wallets Transaction Value to Grow by 60% by 2026 Globally

A new research study has found the value of digital wallets transactions will exceed $12 trillion in 2026, from $7.5 trillion in 2022. To capitalise on this substantial growth, the research predicts leading digital payment vendors will diversify their payment products to include new solutions, such as buy-now-pay-later and cryptocurrencies. Digital wallets are software-based systems that securely store users’ payment information for many payment methods in one location.

The new research, Digital Wallets: Key Opportunities, Vendor Analysis and Market Forecasts 2022-2026, found increasing merchant acceptance of digital wallets methods at eCommerce checkouts has been a driving force behind enabling further digital wallets use. It predicts APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that connect financial institutions to local retailers will be key to the international growth of digital wallets usage for large, cross-border eCommerce merchants.

The research also recommends that digital wallets vendors look to offer value-added services, such as loyalty rewards and credit, to diversify their revenue streams; capitalising on a highly active user base.

PayPal & Alipay Ranked as Leading Digital Wallets Providers in Competitor Leaderboard

Juniper Research’s Competitor Leaderboard for the digital wallets market has identified the 5 leading market vendors as follows:

1.    PayPal
2.    Alipay
3.    WeChat Pay
4.    Apple Pay
5.    Google Pay

Research co-author Damla Sat elaborated: “The digital wallets market is heavily saturated, meaning finding a source of differentiation is critically important. We have ranked PayPal as an established leader as it has successfully grown an expansive, differentiated offering; leveraging its strong merchant acceptance by expanding quickly into buy-now-pay-later and QR code payments, as well as signing partnerships with key merchants to scale its innovative solutions.”

Juniper Research’s Competitor Leaderboard provides an independent assessment of the market standing of the leading digital wallets players. It includes a robust and transparent assessment methodology, including heatmap analysis and a thorough explanation of each company’s market position. The Leaderboard tool assesses each vendor’s capacity, capability, and products. This analysis includes assessing the size of their operations, financial performance and the sophistication of their digital wallets offerings.