MTS Bank studied payments by Russians using QR codes for the first half of 2023 and 2024. An analysis of our own anonymized data on bank cards showed that the number of transactions over the year increased by 3.5 times. The largest number of payments were made in stores of the Magnit and Pyaterochka chains.
ShutterOK/Shutterstock/Fotodom
The popularity of QR code payments among Russians continues to grow steadily – such payments have become an alternative to contactless payment services. Unlike the latter, payment via QR has no restrictions – it can be made using any banking application on a phone with any operating system.
MTS Bank noted that the main driver for the development of QR payments was online payment. The share of online payments in the first half of 2024 amounted to 23% of the total number of transactions using a QR code. The growth in popularity was also influenced by the fact that many sellers, for their part, are trying to promote this payment method, since in this case the commission is significantly lower than acquiring. Sellers often ask to pay using a QR code, and large retail chains launch various promotions with cashback or discounts.
According to the company, in the first half of 2024, the number of payments made using QR codes increased 3.5 times compared to the same period last year. And cash flow when paying via QR has increased 3 times. The average purchase amount decreased by 13% to 1,950 rubles.
Analysts also noted that the number of service users increased by 66%, and the frequency of payments by 30%. The share of QR code payments amounted to 8.1% of the total number of card transactions in the first half of 2024 – a year ago it was only 2.7%.
Most often in the first half of this year, MTS Bank clients made purchases using a QR code in stores of the Magnit and Pyaterochka chains, the Stoloto lottery supermarket, as well as in Krasnoe & Beloe stores and on the Ozon marketplace. Over the year, the top five has undergone minor changes. In the first half of 2023, the top 5 retail outlets by the number of payments via QR code included: Wildberries, Magnit, Krasnoe&Beloe, Stoloto and Pyaterochka.
MTS refused to rent an office in the Moscow business center Silver City
