The use of virtual cards has skyrocketed in Spain, since the number of virtual payments via card they have shot up 98% in the last half year. This is what emerges from the study published by Qonto, a financial management solution for companies, on the payment habits of SMEs and the self-employed, after analyzing the behavior of the more than 300,000 clients that the neobank has in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Germany would be in second position in terms of this modality, having increased its use by 25% compared to the same period of the previous year. France, for its part, registers a setback in the use of payments virtual, with a fall of 16% followed by Italy, which does so with 8%.
On a global level and by sectors, logistics and construction are progressively adapting to this type of payment. In construction, payments through the virtual card have increased by 71.6% and in the logistics sector this increase stands at 50.4%.
Regarding the number of online transactions, Spain once again leads growth, standing at 83%, followed by 67% in Germany -despite being a country in which, traditionally, SMEs and freelancers have made their transactions in cash- and 12% in Italy. France, again, registers a fall of 9%.
The trend in Spain of greater financial digitization is complemented by the data that the neobank announced on the occasion of its third anniversary, when it reported on the increase in the number of transactions that Spanish businessmen carried out through its platform, registering triple that in 2021 and reaching a value of 1,150 million euros.
For Carles Marcos, country manager of Qonto in Spain “The digital revolution that was established two years ago is unstoppable. SMEs and entrepreneurs, even from traditional sectors, joined the era of digital finance and the trend is incremental and disruptive”.
Physical cards are still in the majority
Although the increase in virtual payments continues to grow, the physical card is still the most used method. In Spain, physical card transactions carried out by SMEs and the self-employed accounted for 62% of the total during the first semester, compared to 38% of the virtual ones. A figure well ahead of the 11.9% registered in Germany during the same period, 9.1% in Italy or 6.7%.
