A survey conducted by Mastercard and Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) in 13 countries across the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, including Jamaica, shows how consumer habits have changed, how the demand for financial services has increased, and how companies will have to adapt to the novel digital ecosystem generated by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The results of the survey were presented recently during the 9th Edition of the 2020 Mastercard LAC Innovation Forum, an annual Mastercard event that brings together leaders and experts from the technology and payment industries to share their views in the post-COVID-19 era.
The survey shows how the pandemic and the social distancing have galvanised digital and financial inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean and, from one moment to the next, made this inclusion a priority. The data reveal that over 40 million people in the region have banked in recent months and, by the end of the year, AMI predicts that 50 million users will have made online purchases for the first time.
COVID-19 forced Latin Americans and Caribbean from Jamaica, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Puerto Rico to reconsider their relationship with banks and technology.
Forty-six per cent of those surveyed have thought about saving money, and another 46 per cent already pay bills online, so the seeds for a long-term savings mindset have already been sown.
THE RISE OF E-COMMERCE
The survey report shows that, over the past months, once cash was seen as something “dirty” and dangerous in terms of contagion, e-commerce has become the only way to buy and online banks have offered the simplest way to handle money. The survey also found that confinement nearly doubled the increase rate of e-commerce during this time: from a pre-COVID-19 penetration of 45 per cent to its current 83 per cent.
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