During the first half of 2024, around 2,560 million operations were carried out with credit and debit cards, of which electronic commerce represented 24.2%, that is, 619 million for an amount of 461,725 million. weights.
In Mexico during 2023, 65.9 million people bought at least one product or service via the internet; The e-commerce purchasing categories that grew the most that year were fashion with 41.7%, household appliances with 38.2% and non-alcoholic beverages with 37.2%, according to the Online Sales 2024 study, published by the Mexican Sales Association. On-line. The most used device to make these purchases was a smartphone, 98%; The average age of these buyers was 38.6 years and it is women who buy more through a digital channel, with 51% participation.
According to the information provided by the Bank of Mexico, the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (Condusef) reported that on the business side, for example, in 2023 the number of MSMEs that 70.7% of them had a website and/or social networks for the dissemination and sale of their products; 98.5% use a smartphone to carry out their activities and 5 out of 10 companies use fixed point-of-sale terminals for cell phones to sell their products and services.
SEE ALSO Tips for getting your first credit card
Electronic commerce has had a continuous increase in the level of transactions, representing 24.2% of the total operations carried out with credit and debit cards at Point of Sale Terminals (POS) in the first half of 2024. In the case of Mexico, campaigns such as Hot Sale or Buen Fin contribute to the growth of e-commerce operations; For the Buen Fin 2024 version, 8 out of 10 Internet users declared that they plan to buy a product or service, 2 out of 10 will resort to electronic commerce exclusively, but 7 out of 10 declared that they will use both this channel and physically buy in stores. The main reasons that motivate electronic commerce are that the promotions and/or discounts are more than those found in physical stores, they save time, avoid crowds and can compare prices and variety of products from different businesses and/or manufacturers. For the Buen Fin 2024 edition, an economic impact of 165.5 billion pesos is expected.
In this sense of growth, during January to June 2024 the preference for using the debit card remained, since of the 619 million operations, this means of payment represented 69.6% (431 million operations) for an amount of 222 one thousand 987 million pesos; while with the credit card the number of operations was 188 million with an amount of 238 thousand 738 million pesos. For every credit card operation, 2.3 are carried out with a debit card; However, when considering the amount of the operations, there is a slightly higher proportion for the credit card, since usually credit purchases tend to be larger.
When it comes to the amount of these transactions, the participation of both cards is more proportional, but not in the case of the number of operations in which the debit card predominates, with 7 out of 10 online purchases being made with this type of plastic.
In the first half of 2024, the average expense made on each e-commerce purchase for the credit card was 1,269 pesos and for the debit card it was 517 pesos, which still indicates that for small purchases the use is preferably with own resources and for larger purchases the credit granted by financial institutions is used.
In this sense, compared to the same period in 2023, electronic commerce operations presented an increase of 25.4%; However, with respect to their amount, this increased by 23.4%. The debit card increased slightly more in terms of the amount, 24.5%, and the number of operations, 25.5%.
From January to June 2024, cardholders requested authorization for around 893 million e-commerce purchases, using both payment methods; 69% ended in an authorized movement by the card-issuing institution, that is, 619 million operations of which only 0.41% resulted in a chargeback or claim by the cardholder for not recognizing the operation or the amount thereof.
In terms of participation in operations, cards issued by BBVA continue to predominate, making 43.7% of online purchases with them, followed by those from Banamex with 16.4%. These two institutions account for 60.1% of commerce operations. electronic carried out in the first half of 2024:
The authorization percentage in 2023 was 7 out of every ten purchase requests for both types of card.
Banamex is the institution with the highest level of authorization, since, in both cards, credit and debit, this institution authorizes 8 out of every 10 purchase requests.
