PayPal Remains the Most Popular Online Payment Method in Germany

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When shopping online German customers still prefer to pay with Paypal, according to the EHI’s study “Online Payment 2024”. The online payment service continues to lead the rankings of the most popular payment methods in 2023, after pushing purchase on account from the top in the previous year. 

“The fast processing and convenience of Paypal are still among the success factors of this payment method” says the author of the study, Radoslav Raychev, explaining the results of “Online Payment 2024” based on the survey among retail payment managers.

Paypal maintains its position once again

27.7 percent of online purchases were paid for with Paypal in 2023 (2022: 29.6 percent). The reason for the slight decline are special effects such as temporary interruptions in the acceptance of some payment methods. It shows that online payment services are preferable among Germans. As in the previous year, purchasing on account follows in second place, although its share of sales increased from 23.8 percent to 26.7 percent. The third most profitable payment method in e-commerce is direct debit card with 16.7 percent (previous year: 20.9 percent).

The most important market players of the future

As part of the study, retail payment managers were also asked which market players they consider important for the further development of online payment. Unsurprisingly, Paypal and Apple take the top places in the ranking from a retail perspective. For the first time, the study also contains figures on the importance of the payment service Klarna, which is also at the forefront and is in third place ahead of Google. Among the already established payment services, those surveyed also see future potential in the payment area for the AI ​​applications from OpenAI (tenth place).