A study suggests younger people are more likely to walk away if their preferred payment option isn’t supported.
Gen Z, the generation widely considered to be digital natives, is particularly choosy when it comes to online purchasing, a new study has found. Online shoppers frequently browse sites, fill their carts and head to checkout — only to abandon the purchase if their preferred digital wallet is not available for check out, according to a recent study from global data and analytics platform PYMNTS Intelligence. And this phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the Gen Z demographic.
More than one-third (36 percent) of Gen Z shoppers abandoned a cart in the last 30 days because they couldn’t pay the way they wanted, 1.7 times the overall average, followed closely by millennials at 31 percent. Collectively, 40 million consumers in those two age groups walked away from intended purchases in a single month, the study found, resulting in massive profit losses for online retailers. These cart-abandonment rates are significantly lower for Gen X, with only 15 percent walking away from purchases, and baby boomers and seniors, at only 8.3 percent. With Gen Z’s spending power expected to grow to $12 trillion by 2030, retailers risk missing out on a major demographic if they fail to expand online payment options.
Digital wallets are on the rise
Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are becoming increasingly common for both online and in-store purchases. Digital wallets were used in 40 percent of online purchases in 2025 and 17 percent of in-store spending, according to a study from payment technology firm Global Payments.
Meanwhile, the PYMNTS study found 87 million consumers, or one-third of US shoppers, had used a digital wallet online in the prior 30 days. Despite Gen Z’s well-documented proclivities for analog life, the demographic remains the most likely to use digital wallets, at 47 percent, followed by millennials at 44 percent
These digital natives are driving a global shift to digital wallets, particularly in the US, where $4.1 trillion of total spending is expected to take placeth Gen Z increasingly reaching for their digital wallets, companies that don’t adapt risk being left behind, as the group’s behavior is a harbinger for future consumer trends
What payment services does Gen Z prefer?
Financial precarity, unsurprisingly, has major effects on how people spend: the PYMNTS study found that when their preferred method was missing, 29 percent of consumers living paycheck to paycheck who struggle to pay bills abandoned a cart. The rate is nearly three times that for consumers who do not live paycheck to paycheck, at 11 percent.
This issue is particularly pronounced for Gen Z, which has a current unemployment rate of 8.3 percent — double the national average. Even young people who are employed struggle with cost of living in the US, with 42 percent of Gen Z living paycheck to paycheck.
With many young people facing financial pressure, preference for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services supported by online wallets are on the rise. Such short-term financing options let users make a down payment and then split the remaining balance into several subsequent payments.
The PYMNTS study found 17.7 million customers abandoned a purchase in the last 30 days because PayPal wasn’t available, and 11.1 million of those cited the lack of PayPal Pay Later as a specific reason for failing to purchase. PayPal Pay Later was more popular than other leading BNPL services, with 20% of consumers preferring the service to Klarna at 12.4 percent.
Gen Z walks away; retailers lose out
The bottom line is that missing digital wallet options mean losing out on profit: 33 percent of digital wallet users overall said they would have delayed a purchase, switched merchants or skipped it if their wallet hadn’t been accepted, the PYMNTS study said. That number is much higher for Gen Z, with nearly half of the age group stating they would have changed merchants or abandoned the transaction.
Overall, 21 percent of consumers in the US had abandoned an online purchase in the 30 days before being surveyed by PYMNTS, 47 percent of whom wanted to use a digital wallet. That’s 26.3 million customers lost, the study notes.
“Checkout is the last handoff in a relay, and a missing payment option can drop the baton just before the finish,” the PYMNTS study said. “Every unsupported payment method is a potential lost sale, and the younger your customer base, the higher the risk.”
