In the first half of 2024, Finnish payment service providers’ customers made more e-commerce payments with cards and credit transfers than in the same period last year. The payments amounted to 234 million transactions, with an aggregate value of EUR 11.8 billion. Year on year, the number of e-commerce payments increased by 14% (29 million payments) and their value in euro terms increased by 12% (EUR 1.3 billion).
In terms of the number of e-commerce transactions, 78% of the payments were made using cards and 22% using credit transfer in the first half of 2024. However, credit transfers on average were larger than card payments, and they amounted to 40% of the total euro amount of payments. The average value of a credit transfer in e-commerce was EUR 91, in contrast with the average value of EUR 39 for card payments in the first half of 2024.
In October 2023, amendments to the Consumer Protection Act came into effect, mandating e-commerce businesses to rearrange their payment options so that credit card usage or new credit applications appear lower in the payment selection. During the first half of 2024, credit cards were used approximately 47 million times for e-commerce purchases, maintaining a similar level to the previous year’s first half. However, compared to the same period in 2023, credit card payments experienced a 13% increase. Conversely, other card payment methods have shown steady growth since 2022, as reflected in semi-annual statistics. Debit cards remain the most widely used payment method in e-commerce, accounting for 132 million transactions totaling EUR 4.1 billion during the first half of 2024.
In e-commerce, credit transfers are primarily initiated through e-payment buttons. Between January and June 2024, these buttons facilitated 39 million payments, amounting to EUR 3.0 billion in total. This figure marks a slight decline from the same period in 2022 and 2023 when nearly 40 million payments were recorded. However, the most significant drop was seen in the total value of these payments, which stood at EUR 4.8 billion in the first half of 2022. Despite this, the most common online payment method remains manually entering card details at the merchant’s checkout. In the first half of 2024, a total of 152 million e-commerce transactions were initiated via card payments.
Finnish payment service provider (PSP) customers’ online purchases were primarily directed toward Finland and the euro area. Payments to Finland accounted for 162 million transactions worth EUR 9.0 billion, while payments to other euro area countries totaled 50 million transactions, valued at EUR 2.0 billion. Purchases from non-euro area EU nations amounted to EUR 0.4 billion, and transactions from non-EU countries reached EUR 0.5 billion during the same period. Notably, e-commerce in the euro area experienced the most substantial growth during the first half of 2024, with a 26% year-on-year increase in transaction volume. Payments to non-EU merchants also saw significant growth, rising 22% in transaction volume, though their value increased only by 4%.
