Visa Europe has put out another batch of contactless payments metrics, showing that one-in-five in-person card transactions it processes are now tap and pay.
The card giant says that it has seen three billion contactless payments in Europe in the last year, nearly triple the amount in the previous 12 months. Europeans used their cards 360 million times in April alone, with the average value rising 12% to EUR13.83.
With some 3.2 million NFC terminals now on the continent, contactless payments as a proportion of all Visa-processed face-to-face payments have risen from 1-in-60 in 2013 to more than one-in-five today, driven by new 'everyday spend' merchants incorporating tap and pay into their check-out.
Consumers have been using contactless to pay for their lunches, lattes and much more, with restaurants experiencing the greatest year-on-year growth (153%), followed by general retail (146%), supermarkets (119%) and, food and drink including fast food (96%).
Poland, Spain and the UK are Europe's contactless hotspots. British takeup grew by 300% from 51 million transactions in April 2015 to 153 million in April 2016, thanks in large part to the technology's adoption by Transport for London, which has seen more than 400 million contactless journeys since launch.
Additionally, the launch of Apple Pay and the Barclaycard’s bPay have encouraged consumers to adopt new ways to pay at major retailers such as Tesco, The Co-Operative, McDonald’s and Marks & Spencer.
Tristan Kirchner, executive director, product management, Visa Europe, says: "This kind of success hasn’t happened overnight, and it’s down to the sterling efforts across many teams at Visa and the wider payment industry making today’s achievement possible while setting the stage for tomorrow’s technology, including new wearable devices and mobile payment services."