INTERVIEW: IF YOU'RE USING CASH LESS OFTEN, YOU'RE PART OF A TREND

The pandemic is speeding up the use of digital payments.

- SANDRA BLOCK

Dayna Ford is senior director- analyst for Gartner, a market research firm. She focuses on digital wallets and other forms of electronic payment.

Electronic payments have soared since the pandemic began. Do you expect that trend to continue after the crisis is over? I do, though the trend toward digital payments due to the pandemic has taken different forms: shopping online, paying digitally while doing a physical pickup or using contactless methods of payment, such as digital wallets. All were existing trends that had been steadily climbing over the past couple of years but have accelerated since the pandemic began. After the crisis is over, the rate of digital payments will drop, but not to what it was before.