Digital wallets continue to transform how the world pays
People have used wallets for centuries to carry valuables. Consumers commonly carry wallets to hold important credentials like official identification, credit cards, debit cards, rewards cards and cash. Today, digital wallets serve a function like physical wallets, both online and in person.
Digital wallets are apps that hold payment credentials for consumers to manage payments from within digital devices like smartphones. Digital wallets from brands like Alipay, Apple Pay, Mercado Pago and PayPal have emerged to surpass cards and cash as the world’s leading online payment method.
In 2025, digital wallets accounted for 56% of global e-commerce and 33% of transaction value at physical points of sale, according to the Global Payments Report 2026 (GPR 2026). The 11th annual report, produced by Global Payments, tracks consumer payment preferences across 42 key markets, and the forces shaping where payments are headed. Its findings draw on an online survey of 63,441 consumers conducted in the second quarter of 2025, alongside transaction data and industry research. Consumers and businesses transacted approximately $13.8 trillion through digital wallets across the 42 markets studied in the report. That’s more than the estimated 2025 GDP of all countries in Latin America and Africa combined.
This article from Global Payments looks at what digital wallets are, where they’re making the most impact around the world, and what small business owners and managers need to know about digital wallets to serve their customers better.
Digital wallets at a glance
- Digital wallets are the world’s leading payment method online and trail only debit and credit cards combined in physical points of sale (POS).
- Asia Pacific (APAC) has the highest regional wallet adoption with China and India at the forefront, while Latin America (LATAM) and the Middle East and Africa are forecast for the highest growth rates.
- Digital wallets are a checkout experience, not a single payment method. Wallets are funded by cards, bank accounts, installment lending, stored value and other methods.
- Underlying payment methods within digital wallets reflect local payment landscapes. Card-centric wallets are prominent in Australia, South Korea and the U.S., while real-time account-to-account payments are central to markets like Brazil, India and Thailand.
- Wallets are popular because they’re fast, safe and easy to use, and they offer flexibility and payment choices that today’s global consumers increasingly expect.
What are digital wallets?
A digital wallet is an app or service that stores payment credentials for use when transacting with businesses or making peer-to-peer payments. Digital wallets can also contain virtual yet official driver licenses, airplane tickets, public transportation passes, event tickets and even virtual car keys. Consumers use digital wallets to make purchases within apps and websites on their smartphones and other smart devices, on laptops and desktop computers, and in stores or other physical points of sale.
Wallets have held human valuables for centuries. From ancient pouches that hold coins to leather wallets for cash and cards, consumers have long relied upon trusted personal containers to safely store and transport funds for use when and where they’re needed. Digital wallets are a natural extension of that concept for our digital-first world.
GPR 2026 divides wallets into three categories:
- Pass-through wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Wallet, act as security agents to protect consumer privacy while transmitting tokenized credentials for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions.
- Staged wallets, such as PayPal and Cash App, draw funds from another stored payment source before initiating payment.
- Stored-value wallets, such as GCash in the Philippines and WeChat Pay in China, hold funds inside the wallet app itself after being loaded by cash, bank accounts or other means.
Digital wallets typically fall into one of the three categories, although some can overlap and exist side-by-side. A wallet like Alipay continues to serve its longstanding role as a stored-value wallet, while also having pass-through card capabilities.
Three important technologies enable digital wallet payments:
- Tokenization substitutes a payment credential with a different value, or token. This helps protect personal information from bad actors, as the original card number does not have to pass through every stage of the transaction.
- Near-field communication (NFC) technology lets compatible devices exchange information over a short distance. NFC is the contactless technology behind most tap-to-pay wallet transactions.
- QR codes provide businesses and consumers access to digital wallet payments even in areas where cards (and the payment terminals that accept them) are less common. QR codes contain machine-readable information that allows businesses and consumers to connect and transact instantly via smart devices.
The business models behind the apps and the technologies behind digital wallet acceptance help provide the context for the tremendous growth and current popularity of digital wallets. For businesses, what’s important to remember is that digital wallets are a preferred way to pay for consumers around the world, including your customers and potential customers.
Digital wallet adoption by the numbers
For small businesses, one practical way to understand digital wallet adoption is to look at where payment value is moving. GPR 2026 measures adoption by share of transaction value across online and in-store purchases. That makes it possible to compare how much spending flows through digital wallets across channels and markets.
Globally, digital wallets represented 38% of combined online and POS payment value in 2025, totaling more than $13.8 trillion across the 42 markets studied. The report forecasts the wallet share of e-commerce value to rise from 56% to 63% by 2030 and the POS share from 33% to 42%.
In the U.S., card-led wallets accounted for a larger share of online spending than direct use of credit cards in 2025, at 40% versus 32%. In stores, direct use of credit and debit cards still accounted for much more value. Digital wallets represented 17% of POS value, compared with 33% globally. The report forecasts POS wallet share in the U.S. to reach 26% by 2030.
Digital wallets haven’t grown as fast as the global average, mostly because the U.S. has such a strong and successful card payment culture. The U.S. has a mature, ubiquitous network of modern card payment terminals, most with secure contactless acceptance. Cards are deeply entrenched in U.S. consumer culture, persisting alongside digital alternatives.
The card-centric wallets in the U.S. give new form to an ingrained habit, alongside the trusted and familiar plastic. Consumers from all generations use digital wallets online and in stores, yet younger generations do so with greater frequency, setting digital tools on a trajectory to increasing share of wallet-first purchasing and bend, if not break, the plastic habit.
Where digital wallet adoption is growing fastest
In the early part of this century, the story of digital wallet growth was mostly a story of rapid adoption in China, and limited and often sporadic growth elsewhere. China and APAC consumers still lead in digital wallet use, but today, the story of wallet growth is global, with double-digit shares of value both online and in-store in virtually all major markets.
Asia Pacific
APAC continues to have the highest regional wallet share in the report, as digital wallets accounted for 77% of e-commerce value and 63% of POS value in 2025. China and India carry substantial weight in those totals, but wallet adoption is broad across the region.
Local payment systems help explain the pattern. China combines widespread QR payments via market leaders Alipay and WeChat Pay, which are both stored-value and pass-through wallets. In India, Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm lead a market that carries mostly real-time account-to-account payments via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). National fast-payment systems also play an important role in other APAC markets, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
North America
Digital wallets accounted for 39% of North American e-commerce value and 17% of POS value in 2025. Apple Pay, Google Wallet and PayPal are among the prominent providers. Reflecting consumers’ overwhelming payment preference in Canada and the U.S., most wallet spending in North America is funded by cards.
Europe
Europe remains strongly card-based, especially in stores. Digital wallets represented 18% of regional POS value in 2025 and are forecast to reach 26% by 2030. The report projects a 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in wallet value at points of sale over that period.
The report also highlights developments that could support further wallet adoption, including wider access to the iPhone’s NFC functionality for providers beyond Apple Pay and the introduction of the regional wallet Wero. Cards remain an important funding source inside wallets across Europe.
Latin America
LATAM started from a lower wallet share in 2025, at 23% of e-commerce value and 16% of POS value. The report forecasts wallet transaction value to grow at 14% CAGR online and 11% at points of sale through 2030. Mercado Pago has a broad regional presence alongside domestic providers such as Nequi in Colombia and Yape in Peru.
In addition to digital wallets, consumers in LATAM use banking apps to access popular real-time payment services like Pix in Brazil and, more recently, Bre-B in Colombia.
Middle East and Africa
Across Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), digital wallets represented 34% of e-commerce value and 27% of POS value in 2025. Wallet value is forecast to grow at 14% CAGR online and 11% at points of sale through 2030. By 2030, the GPR 2026 analysis forecasts wallets to lead regional payments at points of sale. Stc pay is the leading wallet in Saudi Arabia, OPay is popular in Nigeria, while Apple Pay leads the way in South Africa and the UAE.
M-Pesa, a stored-value wallet originating in Kenya, illustrates how wallet adoption can develop around mobile-money infrastructure instead of the card-led model common in North America and Europe. M-Pesa leveraged the dominant technology infrastructure in Africa, using SMS text messages and cellular networks rather than requiring smartphones or mobile data plans.
What is driving digital wallet adoption?
Digital wallets have ascended because they fit with long-established payment habits. Additionally, their added features and functions are specific to digital environments and modern payment systems:
- Wallets fit existing habits. In the U.S., UK and Australia, wallets are largely card-funded. In India, UPI account-to-account payments play a much larger role. Wallets often package the methods consumers already trust.
- Local rails shape checkout. QR in China and parts of Southeast Asia, and fast-payment systems like UPI in India, PromptPay in Thailand and BI-FAST in Indonesia, are powering real-time payments that provide the rails that digital wallets use in those markets.
- Contactless access is expanding. In Europe, access to Apple’s NFC payment acceptance technology is enabling more providers to deliver tap-to-pay experiences.
- Wallets are multi-method. Digital wallets increasingly offer buy now, pay later and other installment options alongside cards, bank transfers, cryptocurrencies and reward points, supporting consumer choice that drives higher conversions.
- Ecosystems and platforms are driving adoption. In markets throughout the world, wallets emerged alongside and helped create some of the world’s most important consumer platforms, from eBay to Mercado Libre and from KakaoTalk to Weixin (WeChat). Many of today’s most popular wallets are super-apps that combine payments with commerce, banking, messaging, mobility, investing and many more options.
Data Points:
- 56%: Share of global e-commerce transaction value paid through digital wallets in 2025
- 33%: Share of global POS transaction value paid through digital wallets in 2025
- 38%: Share of combined e-commerce and POS payment value represented by digital wallets in 2025, more than $13.8 trillion across the 42 markets covered
What digital wallet adoption means for your business
Digital wallets can help businesses increase conversion and reduce checkout friction. Digital wallets also help businesses support mobile-first shopping habits and meet customers where they are by providing the payment options they want most.
The bottom line is that digital wallets meet customers where they are — on the rails, devices and experiences they already use.
Digital wallet FAQ
Are digital wallets replacing cash?
In several markets, digital wallets have largely replaced cash, particularly for everyday retail purchases and where e-commerce has flourished most. However, digital wallets are not replacing cash everywhere at the same pace. Consumers increasingly use smartphones, smartwatches and other wallet-capable devices to pay for small, everyday purchases that were once paid for in cash.
While digital wallets (and cards before them) have helped replace what was effectively 100% cash use 60 years ago, cash remains an important part of the payments mix in all markets covered by GPR 2026. An entirely cashless future is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Are digital wallets different from electronic wallets?
Digital wallets, mobile wallets and electronic wallets (or e-wallets) all describe digital payment applications that are tied to accounts and devices of individual consumers and are operated by consumers via smartphones, smartwatches and other internet-connected devices.
Are super-apps also digital wallets?
Super-apps are digital platforms that combine many services into a single app. Super-apps combine two or more major functions like banking, food delivery, e-commerce, messaging, mobility and more inside one ecosystem. The “super” part is subjective (and aspirational) but typically implies being large and popular in addition to serving multiple functions. Payments are central to many apps — super- and otherwise — by enabling commerce to transpire within the app ecosystem.
What is a closed-loop wallet vs. an open-loop wallet?
A closed-loop wallet can be used only within the app’s merchant ecosystem, like the Starbucks and McDonald’s apps. An open-loop wallet can be used anywhere that accepts the underlying payment network or payment method, like Apple Pay globally or MobilePay in the Nordic region.
Is digital wallet acceptance difficult for small businesses?
Digital wallet acceptance is increasingly easy. Small businesses typically connect to the world of payments via payment service providers that help businesses determine the best mix of payment options and infrastructure to serve their customers. For most small businesses in the U.S., digital wallet acceptance is common and built into most POS acceptance and e-commerce tools and services.
Methodology
GPR 2026 draws on GlobalData’s 2025 Financial Services Consumer Survey, conducted online in the second quarter of 2025 among 63,441 consumers across 42 markets representing 89% of global GDP per imf data. The report combines survey findings with internal transaction data and external sources, including central banks, card networks, government statistics and industry research. Worldpay uses proprietary modeling and reviews the estimates with its payments experts to assess payment method shares and market sizes for 2025, with projections through 2030. Payment shares reflect total transaction value in U.S. dollars, rather than transaction counts. The analysis covers industrywide consumer-to-business payments online and at physical points of sale, excluding bill payments, person-to-person payments and business-to-business payments. Projections account for historical trends, regulation and broader economic factors and may differ from actual results.
This story was produced by Global Payments and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
