The Wirecard platform is now available in New Zealand for e-commerce services and Australia for omnichannel solutions. With this expansion, Wirecard is extending its ecosystem of real-time value added services around innovative digital payments in Oceania.

This leverages on the global Wirecard strategy of digitizing payments worldwide as Australia is leading innovation in areas such as contactless payments, bill payments, digital commerce, and point-of-sale applications, and the market is ready to make the next transformation. Research and Markets found out that the Australian payment mix is shifting heavily toward electronic payments. Consumers are continuing to switch to electronic payment methods from paper-based methods - like cash and checks - for their purchases. The dominant payment method in Australia is cards: more than 50% of consumer payments in 2016 were made with cards. The rapidly increasing use of contactless card payments, the development of new digital cash substitutes, such as mobile P2P payments, and the high adoption rate of smartphones (89% in 2016) position Australia as a strong candidate for a cashless society.

It is the same situation in New Zealand: Online spending in New Zealand is on the rise and more than a quarter of citizens prefer to shop on the web. Online spending in New Zealand is now worth NZ$4.2 billion annually, up from NZ$3.9 billion the same time a year earlier, with retailers making more effort to combine their selling points on one single platform.

Daniel Vukovac, General Manager Merchant Business Solutions Australia at Wirecard, commented: “Wirecard has been successfully doing business in Australia for quite a few years, winning some major clients. The latest omnichannel expansion in this region marks another important step to offer our services globally to as many merchants as possible - through digitizing payment processes and making transactions seamless for end-consumers. We are looking forward to further reducing the usage of cash worldwide and offering customers the benefits of truly digital payment solutions.”