"In 2023, the volume of e-commerce in Azerbaijan, including the use of smartphones, will reach $162.6 million (276.8 million manats), Report has learnt from Visa International.
"This stands for an increase of 2.5 times in four years. In 2015, this figure was $7.5 million (12.8 million manats), in 2019 - $66 million (111.9 million manats). The major reason for this increase is the increase in the number of mobile users," the company said.
Under the report, in 2020, the number of smartphones in Azerbaijan exceeded the total population.
Visa said that 11.3 million mobile connections were registered in Azerbaijan for a population of 10.18 million.
The company believes that the availability of virtual cards and alternative payment solutions for online shopping will further accelerate the growth of e-commerce in the future.
In 2020, the volume of transfers made by customers via e-banking in current accounts and transactions with payment cards within the country has reached a historic high. Thus, over that period, the volume of payments made by this method amounted to 95.7 billion manat, and 6.4 billion manat with Visa cards.
At present, 9 out of 10 Visa cards in Azerbaijan are contactless, and 8 out of 10 transactions with these cards are carried out without contact.
Visa also announced an increase in contactless transactions in Azerbaijan. Thus, over the past year, the volume of contactless transactions (via cards and tokens) increased by 2.5 times (152%), and payments via mobile and portable devices increased by 13.1 times (1205.35%).