United States
Cross-border shopping lifts demand for US digital payments
Population
The United States had an estimated population of 331,002,651 as of the middle of 2020, according to UN data. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest UN data, The United States had a population of 332,277,970 as of February 26, 2021, with 82.8% living in urban areas, mainly New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The median age of the population is 38.3 years. The United States had approximately 269.5 million active internet users as of January 2021, according to Data Reportal.
E-commerce
The relatively high internet, banking, and smartphone penetration rate means The United States faces very few challenges to establish an e-commerce market, yet with a super competitive market. The average annual revenue per paying user in The United States amounted to $1,804 in 2020.. Most cross-border e-commerce purchases by shoppers are of products from China and the United Kingdom.
Payment preferences
In 2020, most shoppers in the United States prefer to pay with e-wallet and credit cards, followed by debit cards and other payment methods. For cashless payments, the three big players are Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.
Economy
According to IMF data, The United States had a gross domestic product of $21.43 trillion in 2019, which declined to $20.81 trillion in 2020 due to the pandemic. As the economy continues to recover, The United States's GDP is expected to expand to about $21.92 trillion in 2021.
Internet & mobile phone trends
According to Statista, 99% of 18-29 year olds are internet users in the country as of 2021, with the rest of the age groups following closely. According to Datareportal, there were 298.8 million internet users in January 2021, which had increased by about 11 million (+3.7%) from 2020, with an internet penetration rate of 90% in January 2020. Meanwhile, 72.7% of the population had smartphones in 2021.
Banking
According to the EMarketer, 66% of US citizens had bank accounts in 2021, and 70% of them were credit card holders.