• 43 percent: share of businesses that see improved data security as a key benefit of ePayables
• 35 percent: portion of businesses earning more than $1 billion per year that are highly optimized
• 21 percent: share of businesses planning to adopt ePayables in the next three years

• 59 percent: Portion of businesses that have yet to implement payments automation of any kind
• 46 percent: Share of companies that plan to implement automation within the next 12 months
• 88 percent: Portion of technology firms that have already implemented payments automation

• 59 percent of businesses say real-time payments would improve their cash flow and certainty
• 70 percent of businesses say they would benefit from real-time payments’ instant funds availability
• 60 percent of companies that are interested in real-time payments are also pursuing B2B innovation

• The United States kept its top spot in the Index, coming in as the most cross-border friendly country PYMNTS studied with an Index score of 65.9 out of 100. China rose from fourth to second place with a core of 63.9 out of 100, followed by the U.K. in third 63.2 out of 100.
• The Travel industry received the highest Index score with a 64.8 out of 100, followed by the Apparel and Accessories industry (63.0 out of 100) and the Housewares and Home Furnishing industry (59.4 out of 100).
• Visa is the most commonly accepted payment type, accepted by 94.5% of merchants, followed by Mastercard, accepted by 94 percent – and PayPal, accepted by 79.8 percent.

• VR is expected to generate $1.8 billion for retail and marketing in the year 2022
• The number of VR users more than doubled in 2018, growing from 85 million to 171 million
• Revenues from VR initiatives are expected to increase by 3,000 percent over the next four years

• Four out of 10 travel operators struggle to manage multiple payment service providers
• 82 percent of travel companies innovate to combat the loss of customers
• 36 percent of travel companies expect innovations to decrease costs

• 63.5: Average SCCI score in Q4 2018
• 5.3: Average number of payments accepted on a subscription platform in Q4 2018
• 146 seconds: Average time it took to complete a subscription in Q4 2018

• 61.7 percent of merchants said customer loyalty was their top reason for innovating
• 44.0 percent of merchants are very interested in smart POS systems, although many have yet to implement them
• Only 37.6 percent of merchants in the health and beauty segment report having a website

• 38.5 percent of shoppers were satisfied with using mobile payments
• 24.3 percent of consumers who spent more than $500 on their most recent purchase paid via smartphone
• 37.1 percent of consumers who typically pay via smartphone use embedded debit card payments

• 68 percent of adults who pay for gas with mobile apps buy it as often as once per week.
• 73 percent of users who pay for gas with mobile apps said they are more likely to visit the store again if the app experience is convenient.
• More than half (57 percent) of consumers who pay for gas using mobile apps say they would do so more often if the apps could also pay for c-store products.

• 61 percent of large-format store shoppers and 54 percent of those at small-format stores said they shopped at brick-and-mortar locations about as often as they had in past years.
• Brick-and-mortar consumers were the most satisfied, giving merchants an average omnichannel satisfaction score of 37.2 out of 100. By comparison, any-channel consumers gave a score of 36.2 out of 100, and digital consumers awarded merchants just 35.8 out of 100.
• Purchase history capabilities were some of the most popular among shoppers who had tried various features, as 16.7 percent of those buying medications, 15 percent of those purchasing beauty services and 8.2 percent of those buying beauty products said the features were “very good” or “excellent.”

• Shamoun Siddiqui, vice president and chief information security officer at Neiman Marcus, on the challenges and benefits of using AI and ML to curb cybercrime
• A Deep Dive exploring how retailers are using 3D Secure 2.0 and other tools to safeguard consumers from retail fraud
• Notable headlines from around the space, including news on recent security breaches and the latest security debuts

• More than $1 billion worth of kiosks were ordered in 2015
• One thousand new food and beverage kiosks were installed in 2016
• Food and beverage kiosks produced $218 million in 2016

• 36% of FIs said their existing IT infrastructure made payments innovation hard or very hard
• 68% of FIs with less than $500 million in assets say they are well suited for innovation
• 63% of FIs identify meeting a customer need as the main driver for innovation
• 83% of FIs run core processing systems without a sandbox for development innovation
• 39.7% of top innovators use sandbox-to-scale functionality

• In collaboration with Visa, PYMNTS asked 2,800 U.S. consumers about the devices they own and how they use them to buy things. We also asked those consumers about the purchases they made in the past seven days, the devices they used to make those purchases and why they made a purchase with that device in that way.
• We studied the usage of connected devices such as smartphones, desktops, laptops, tablets, smart televisons, voice-activated assistants and cars with connected dashboards, among others.
• This is the second year of this study, so we were eager to observe how those consumer trends have evolved since last year’s study.

• 90.7 percent: Share of patients who say they can pay off their payment plans in full, either early or by following the plan schedule
• 89.8 percent: Portion of respondents who say they would be willing to consider using a payment plan in the future
• $758: The average out-of-pocket cost for patients who did not pay their debts and have no plans to do so

• $10B: Value saved in digitized deposits via the Aadhaar payment app in the past three years
• $600M: Amount Alibaba invested in AI company SenseTime
• 34: Number of countries participating in the SCT Inst scheme

• 45 percent: Increase in account takeovers in Q2 2017
• $3.3 billion: Amount lost by merchants to account takeovers in Q2 2017
• $57.8 billion: Value of potential fraud in the eight industries the Index analyzed

• 60 percent: Portion of South Africa’s GDP accounted for by cash share
• 12 percent: Expected increase in the Middle East’s overall DFP between 2016 and 2021
• 60 percent: Share of adults in Turkey who possess bank accounts

• 38.4 percent: Share of non-seasonal gig workers
• 38.2 percent: Share of gig workers were paid via direct deposit
• 19.4 percent: Share of gig workers were not employed outside the gig economy

• 81 percent of consumers say their financial situation has remained stable or improved since last year
• 41 percent of consumers were contacted about credit card debt in Q2 2018
• 34 percent of consumers do not have bank accounts because they do not trust banks

• Groceries or food-at-home products make up 20 percent of all consumer retail spending
• Cost, convenience and product choice are the three key factors for consumers when choosing grocery retailers
• The average customer spends more than $4,000 a year on food and makes more than 40 visits to grocery stores annually

• 7.8 percent: Year-over-year decrease in consumer satisfaction with recurring payments
• 75 percent: Share of consumers who prefer instant payments say speed is the most important factor
• 45.5 percent: Portion of consumers who live paycheck to paycheck who said they were extremely satisfied with instant payments

• 68.5 percent: Share of customers who are “very” or “extremely” satisfied with their authentication methods
• 40.9 percent: Portion of satisfied consumers who say they were satisfied due to their method’s data security
• 63.4 percent: Share of customers who authenticate themselves online when it comes to healthcare authenticated via mobile

• An interview with Logan Vander Linden, payments partnerships lead for Airbnb, on how the platform works to meet local, state and national digital security regulations while expanding its global presence
• Notable headlines from the payments and platform economy space, including why countries like South Korea are relaxing their homesharing restrictions
• A case study exploring how HomeAway is dealing with regulatory challenges, competition and customer preferences in an expanding market

• 53.3 percent: Share of consumers who use voice assistants to connect while driving
• 47.2 percent: Portion of commuters using connected devices while driving who say they are most interested in using them to find gas stations
• 36.6 percent: Share of commuters who use voice assistants connect to the internet via mobile devices

• More than 50 percent of consumers now shop contextually
• Approximately 1 billion devices now support Google Assistant
• Tyler Cooper, CEO of TheTake.AI, talks about what’s slowing contextual commerce’s growth and how AI can help speed it up

• 51 percent: Portion of CU members who banked with CUs because they liked their prices
• 58.4 percent: Share of members who were “extremely” satisfied with their CUs
• 51 percent: Portion of CUs that cited compliance as an impediment to innovation

• 19.3: Average number of purchases millennials make every year
• 25 percent: Share of bridge millennials buying online who prefer Amazon
• 50 percent: Portion of consumers who prefer omnichannel shopping experiences

• Netflix added 6.4 million subscribers in 2018 and now has more than 137 million global customers
• Eighty percent of consumers’ interactions will be handled by AI in 2023
• A deep dive on digital services and their impact

• 92.4 percent: Share of MCS users without financial dependents who use MCS with their primary cards
• 49.7 percent: Share of MCS users who use MCS with credit cards given to their significant others
• 49.0 percent: Share of MCS users who said MCS' spending limits make it easier to manage their money

Q2 2018 CCI FINDINGS

• 82.2: Average CCI score of the Top 30 merchants we studied
• 47.7: Average CCI score of all the merchants we surveyed
• 145.4 seconds: Average time it takes to check out on an eCommerce site

• 34 percent of companies say their use of ePayables will increase in the next three years.
• More than 35 percent of companies earning more than $1 billion per year have already adopted accounts payable automation.
• 61 percent of businesses say that Real-Time Payments would improve their payroll operations.

• 70.5% Share of FIs that used data mining to fight fraud
• 4.1 Average number of algorithmic tools used by banks with more than $100 billion in assets
• 2.5% Share of FIs that used AI systems to enhance payments services