The adoption and impact of contactless payment technologies : a study based in Malta

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate the adoption as well as the impact of contactless payment technologies in Malta in order to understand the drivers, the challenges, and the implications of using this technology amongst customers in Malta, and Maltese businesses. This is done by conducting several interviews to gain insights from companies, and surveys to get different perspectives by a number of Maltese citizens. The findings from the study reveal that there is significant interest in contactless payment technologies by the customers, as well as companies, as it is clearly noticeable that the technology is accepted in the majority of stores in Malta. The reason for this acceptance could be due to the positive influences that these technologies have, like convenience and efficiency that were found through this study. However, in spite of the popularity that this technology has gained and being the most common way to pay, many Maltese residents do not know what NFC and RFID are. An interesting result that was seen in this analysis shows that factors like age, education level, and employment status, have no effect on how people prefer to pay, as it was seen that for example, the majority of those who are 61 years or over prefer paying by card, and paying by cash was mostly popular with those aged 46-60 years. These discoveries suggest that contactless payment technologies in Malta have made a clear difference when it comes to the buying preferences. However, due to the lack of knowledge of NFC and RFID, the results suggest the need for educational campaigns in order to increase understanding of contactless payments.