Sarajevo, February 16, 2022 – MasterIndex, traditional research by Mastercard about financial habits and needs of active card users in Bosnia and Herzegovina, confirmed that online payment became part of the financial culture of our country and that this type of payment has continuous growth. MasterIndex data showed that 72% of examinees use online payments, which is growth of 3% compared to results in the first year of the pandemic and 30% growth when compared to the year before the pandemic. The study also showed that the first choice of users are still domestic online shops (36%), and that trust in the security of online shopping has remained the same as last year and is 49%, but the distrust is decreasing.
From 72% of respondents that use online payment regularly, 11% of them pay online once a week, 36% use online payment on a monthly bases, while 52% once or a few times a year.
That the preferred ways of buying and paying are moving to the online environment, shows the fact that more than a quarter of respondents (26%) pay monthly bills via the Internet. 42% buy clothes and shoes online, sports equipment 25%, household necessities 24% and groceries 19% of respondents. Citizens visit online shops more often to buy electronic devices (24%), but also for buying cosmetics and beauty treatments (17%).
MasterIndex research in Bosnia and Herzegovina showed that 49% of users of eCommerce generally use cards, no matter if they are debit, credit or online/prepaid cards. 56% uses cash while 28% of examinees use e-banking, i.e. m-banking applications as a option for paying products and services bought online.
When it comes to online paying with a saved card at the merchant or, in other words credentials on file solution, paying utility bills leads (28%), next is paying on supermarket sites (17%) and for food delivery services (15%).
“Habits of users are obviously changing, large part because of pandemic, but mostly because of improved technological solutions in in the field of cashless payment and eCommerce that gave more freedom of choice and better user experience in buying and paying to citizens. Having in mind fact that the citizens of BiH are predominantly committed to online shopping at domestic retailers and that trust in online payment grows from year to year, online online business is a development opportunity for merchants of all sizes, especially for small and medium entrepreneurs to increase the volume of their business. In this we recognize potential for overall economic growth of the domestic online market, which is why investing in education and stimulation retailers and users should be the task of all of us market factors”, stated Jelena Ristić, Market Director for Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Hercegovina.
As there is a noticeable growth of trust in online payment, it is important to mention again common advices for users to approach online payments the same way as standard card payments, it means that they never reveal the card number, PIN and CVC2 codes to anyone and to never share this information via messages, emails or social networks. As well as to check if the merchant’s website has a padlock symbol and https: // tag that guarantee secure data encryption. Users are also advised to look for Mastercard® SecureCode ™ or Mastercard Identity Check symbols on the merchant’s page, such as confirmation of the guarantee that their data is shared only with the receiving financial institution payment, not with the merchant. An additional form of security, Mastercard based solution, is increasingly being used on EMV 3DS standards, i.e. so-called methods. biometric authentication that enables clients reliable identification of the end user of the card when confirming online payments.
Author: Mastercard ®