Digital Payment Dominates

EghtesadOnline: More than 2.73 billion transactions worth 3,886.38 trillion rials ($18.5 billion) were processed by the national retail payment network ‘Shaparak’ during the calendar month to June 20.

News ID: ۷۵۰۴۰۸

07 July 2020

Shaparak website showed 4.8% hike in the volume and 2.29% fall in value of transactions compared to the earlier month.

It said transactions jumped 24.35% and 62.56% in volume and value, respectively, compared to the same month last year.

Adjusting for inflation, the real value of rose 32.73% compared to the same period last year.

Consumer price index registered 22.4% growth year-on-year during the reviewed month and a 2% hike monthly, the Statistical Centre of Iran said.

As the Covid-19 takes a heavy toll, most Iranians prefer e-payment as do businesses, especially the retail sector. Online purchase is slowly but steadily growing as the youth choose to buy all they can via the internet and get it delivered at their doorstep.

Use of cash and going to the ATM is fast becoming a thing of the past as more people are anxious about the viral infection that continues to spread destruction and so far has killed more than half a million in the world.

Electronic payment services are available to users via three main platforms, namely internet, cellphone and point of sale (POS) devices.

With more than 11.24 million payment instruments available in  the mentioned period, the instruments together experienced  1.36% growth compared to one month ago.

The rise was mainly attributed to point-of-sale devices in shops, which grew 1.48% to reach 8.68 million. The number of internet payment gateways and mobile instruments rose 1.02% and 0.86% during the month, respectively.

As is usually the case, POS devices topped the list with the biggest market share accounting for 77.18%.

This was followed by transactions via cellphone with 12% and online payment gateways had 10.82% share of the market.

Higher number of POS devices is mainly due to their larger spread compared to other devices as well as their use without the need for supplementary devices such as PC or cellphone, which may not always be accessible.

POS devices accounted for 90.62% of the total transactions by processing 2.47 billion transactions worth 3,243.9 trillion rials ($15.44 billion) during the month.

Online gateways were next with 5.51% of the transactions and mobile instruments represented 3.87%.

The report said regarding the purpose of transactions, purchasing goods and paying for services had the lion’s share with 87.17%.

Transactions processed for buying cellphone recharges and checking account balance respectively accounted for 8.12% and 4.71% of the total Shaparak transactions in the mentioned period.

As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the number of instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) stood at 1,852 in the month.

The highest penetration rate was for POS devices with 1,429 and internet instrument the lowest with 200 instruments per 10,000 adults.