Bricks-and-mortar retail may not be dead just yet – online shopping giant Amazon's £10.7bn purchase of grocery store Whole Foods last week proved that – but new research shows that consumer spending is rapidly shifting from the high-street to the internet. The value of online card payments worldwide grew by 26 per cent during 2015 to reach $2.7 trillion (£2.13 trillion), representing 12 per cent of all card expenditure, according to a report published by banking and research consultancy firm RBR. The study predicts that online spending will double by 2021 to reach $6 trillion worldwide. The internet's increased accessibility, the growing number of merchants with an online presence, one-click checkouts and a rise the number of smartphones have all contributed to online growth, the report says. Advances in online security have also boosted consumer confidence. Fraud-busting measures such as the creation of a new 3-D Secure specification to authenticate cardholders will continue to be rolled out over the coming years. 3-D Secure 2.0 will use biometric authentication such as thumbprints to identify the user, removing the need for passwords. This is expected to simplify the consumer experience while improving the security of online transactions. Online shoppers in the UK spend more per household than consumers in any other country, indicating a move away from stores to the internet, according to a report by the UK Cards Association in April. UK households spent the equivalent of of $5,900 (£4,700) using payment cards online in 2014, the study found.
