Most used payment methods in e-commerce worldwide in 2024, by region

Digital wallets were significantly more used in Asia-Pacific than in other parts of the world in 2024. Wallets accounted for over 70 percent of e-commerce payments in the region, instead of roughly 20 percent in both Latin America and MEA. Wallets accounted for less than half of global e-commerce payment transactions, which will increase to 54 percent in 2026. Digital wallets are popular in China and India, with PhonePe in India and Alipay in China being notable brands. The APAC region also uses these wallets for mobile proximity payments in an offline POS environment.

Wallets to grow fastest in Latin America

Use of apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay in North America will double between 2020 and 2025, although Asia's market size will be significantly larger. This is according to a regional forecast on payments conducted with mobile wallets. Brazil is the leading country in Latin America for digital wallets. Two of Latin America's most used wallets come from Brazil. Brazilian neobank Nubank had 30 million users, for example. The wallet from Argentian e-commerce giant Mercado Libre, Mercado Pago, had noticeably fewer users.

Is Apple Pay big in either Asia or Latin America?

Apple Pay was relatively more popular in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom than in other countries. One out of 10 respondents from Brazil indicated they had used Apple Pay in a store or restaurant between April 2022 and March 2023 - significantly less than the 69 percent of respondents who said they did so from the UK. That is not to say that countries outside the Western world do not use this payment method. The market share of Apple Pay on websites in India and Brazil was nine percent and three percent, respectively.