Sustained Adoption of Digital Payment Technologies in Switzerland

Switzerland has the highest digital payment adoption rates in Europe with more than 80% of the population actively using tools such as TWINT, Apple Pay and Google Pay. But 95% of Swiss consumers say cash must always be available, a point recently reinforced by a constitutional referendum. This paper investigates the determinants of long-term adoption of digital payments by Swiss consumers and the potential barriers to reverting to cash. It examines the roles of habit, trust, satisfaction and perceived risk on continued adoption.

Relevance: Knowing what motivates sustained digital payment use is key for fintech providers, banks, and policymakers. It costs a lot to get new users. Once they have been taken on board there is a huge business risk in losing them. This study provides actionable insight on what matters most to long-term customer retention in the Swiss market. It also sheds light on why cash remains psychologically relevant even to active digital payment users, and provides guidance to providers who want to build trust and routine in a culturally different and privacy-conscious market.

Results: The strongest predictor for continued use of digital payment is habit, followed by trust in payment provider. Performance expectancy, the belief that digital payments save time and effort, was marginally significant only. Perceived risks of privacy, financial loss and technical failure were not significantly related to continued use of digital payments. Satisfaction partially mediated the drivers of adoption and sustained use, confirming that positive user experiences help to convert initial adoption into sustained habit.

Implications for practice:

Build habits with users. One-off sign up incentives have less of an impact than features that drive folks to use the product again and again, like loyalty integrations and frictionless checkout flows.
Trust, and be trusted. TWINT and other domestic providers benefit from the link to Swiss financial institutions. Transparency on data protection should be part of international providers’ investments.
Don’t forget privacy issues. While the privacy risk was no deterrent for users, it is the most prominent concern for Swiss consumers and should be proactively mitigated.
Co-existence between cash and digital payments is a reality. Choice is valued in the Swiss market. Providers should position digital payments as an enhancement to cash, not a substitute.
Methods: A quantitative survey design was employed, using validated scales from the UTAUT2 framework, Expectation Confirmation Theory and the perceived risk literature. Data were collected online via Qualtrics among 320 Swiss residents who used a digital payment method at least once during the last twelve months. The sample includes respondents from German-speaking, French-speaking and Italian-speaking regions. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, reliability, bivariate correlations, hierarchical multiple regression and mediation analysis using resampling.