What is a wallet?

There are more and more consumers who pay with their mobile instead of physical payment cards - both in physical stores and online. But how does a mobile payment actually work? What is meant when we talk about 'Wallets'? And how do you accept mobile payments in your business? Keep reading and learn more about the topic.

What exactly is a Wallet?

A 'Wallet' is an app on the mobile phone that functions as a digital wallet in which you register your payment cards. When you have your cards in a wallet, you can pay with your mobile phone both in physical stores and in online stores. The most popular wallets in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland include Apple Pay, Google Pay, MobilePay, Vipps, Swish, Pivo and Siirto.

Contactless payments with bank cards use the same technology

When your customers pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay in your physical store, this works in the same way as contactless card payments – it is the same technology that connects the mobile phone to the terminal. The technology is called NFC (Near Field Communication) and can only be used by Apple Pay on iPhone and Google Pay on Android. Therefore, apps such as Vipps, MobilePay and Swish have to use QR codes to connect an iPhone or Android to a payment terminal.

The NFC technology means that your customers only need to hold their mobile phone close to the terminal to complete a purchase quickly and easily, without having to find their card. You therefore do not need to do anything special to be able to accept mobile payments as long as you have a payment terminal in your store.

Are we on our way to becoming world champions in mobile payments?

In the Nordics, we thrive on contactless payments. The Nordics is renowned for being a digital payments pioneer, and the share of contactless payments in this region increased from 74 % to 80 % between 2020 and 2021, according to data from Nets.

Within the Nordics, Denmark is leading with 90 percent of card payments being contactless. Norway is close behind with an 87 % share of contactless card payments. Finland and Sweden display similar shares, 71 and 70 % respectively.

The corona pandemic has been a driver of this development, as consumers have been extra aware of limiting the spread of infection when shopping. However, time will tell whether we become world champions in mobile payments. The switch from paying contactless with a payment card to doing the same with the mobile phone has at least proven to be easy and natural for Nordic consumers.