001 The Transformation The last few years have witnessed dramatic changes in our industry with the rise of digital of Commerce payments. These changes are going to accelerate as more people around the world use contactless cards and smartphones to pay each day. In fact, they are already transforming the face of commerce—as not just every person, but every device that a person interacts with, becomes a commerce opportunity. With approximately $5 trillion dollars in payment volume each year, 15,000 issuers, 40+ million merchant locations, and 3.2 billion cards in market, Visa pays a lot of attention to these changes. In fact, every year Visa runs dozens of payment studies to inform and guide issuers, merchants, acquirers, and other stakeholders on the future of payments. These studies are also used to influence Visa’s own innovation, product, strategy, and marketing decision-making. Here, for the first time Visa is sharing a single comprehensive study conducted in partnership with GfK across 16 of Visa’s largest markets, with the goal of identifying trends, needs, behavioral patterns, and growth opportunities for the future. Throughout this book, you’ll also find viewpoints from experts in the Visa network who offer perspective on the findings uncovered in the data, as well as five trends shaping the future of commerce and an overview of how Visa approaches innovation. We hope this study will move the conversation forward on payment innovation and the tectonic shifts taking place in our industry. We believe that it is not enough to study consumers and how they approach payments. It is also important to share how we are responding to these shifts to better serve the needs of consumers, issuers, merchants, acquirers, and other stakeholders.