Digital Wallets Now Account for 12% of US In-Store Payments

Mobile payment platforms are reshaping the retail checkout experience as consumers increasingly tap their phones instead of swiping cards or counting bills.

Nearly 12% of US shoppers used a digital wallet for their most recent in-store purchase in 2025, according to a PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 3,339 consumers. That represents a dramatic climb from just 0.9% three years earlier.

Cash usage meanwhile declined to 12.1% of in-store transactions, down from 17.6% in 2022. Digital wallets now trail cash by only 0.3 percentage points, suggesting they could overtake physical currency as a payment method in the near future.

The way consumers fund digital wallet transactions is evolving as quickly as adoption rates. Shoppers are increasingly using balances held directly within wallet platforms rather than linking traditional bank cards.

Stored wallet balances powered 3.7% of in-store mobile wallet purchases in 2025, up from 1% in 2023—a 270% increase over two years. This shift gives digital wallets a more central role in managing funds rather than simply serving as a pass-through for card credentials.

Debit cards remain the leading funding mechanism for wallet transactions at 4.1%, followed by wallet balances at 3.7%. Credit cards accounted for 2.5%, while bank transfers and alternative methods each represented less than 1% of wallet-funded purchases.

More than three in ten American consumers now use a mobile wallet in a physical store at least once per week, according to the research. That figure has more than doubled since 2024, indicating mobile payment behaviour is becoming routine rather than occasional.

The findings appear in the report Apple Pay @11: Usage Is Up, but Competitors Are Gaining Ground, which examines how the market leader is navigating increased competition from rival platforms.

Despite rapid growth, digital wallets are expanding alongside traditional payment methods rather than displacing them entirely. Debit cards still accounted for 46.3% of consumers' most recent in-store transactions in 2025, while credit cards represented 31.7%.

Cash and stored balances combined made up 15.9% of retail purchases. The payment mix suggests digital wallets can gain market share while keeping banks and card networks connected to the transaction flow through underlying funding relationships.

The evolution creates a hybrid payments ecosystem where consumers toggle between methods based on context, with digital wallets increasingly serving as an organisational layer that can draw on multiple funding sources depending on the purchase.