Businesses across Europe could achieve a 60 to 80 % costs saving by adopting electronic invoicing, compared to traditional paper-based processes.

"Nearly one quarter (24 %) of all bills and invoices will be processed electronically in 2014, with around six billion paperless invoices and bills to be exchanged across Europe. The report also anticipates a 22 % annual increase in e-invoicing and e-billing in business and government sectors."

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UK consumers are now spending nearly GBP 1 billion a day using mobile and online payment methods, recent findings indicate.

"Millions of British customers are now using contactless cards, payment by mobile and SMS balance alerts, with more than 15,000 people downloading banking apps every day."

"Overall, internet and mobile banking transactions were worth GBP 6.4 billion a week, up from GBP 5.8 billion last year. There were over 14.7 million downloads of mobile and tablet banking apps every week, with internet banking services receiving seven million log-ins per day."

"Spending on contactless cards would rise to GBP 6.1 million a week in 2014, up from GBP 3.2 million in 2013 as more banks offer the technology to customers."

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31% of Americans who use a mobile banking app, access the service at least once a day and more than four in five use it once a week or more.

"81% use their mobile banking app to check their balance, 49% to transfer funds between accounts and 48% to pay bills. Additionally, six in 10 respondents are not yet comfortable with the idea of using their smartphone as a wallet in the future."

"The majority of respondents continue to use bank branches, with 84% of respondents having visited a bank branch within the past six months. Only 23% complete the majority of their banking transactions at a bank branch. Only 47% are using either their mobile or online as their primary method of banking."

"60% of respondents are not yet comfortable with the idea of using their smartphone as a wallet in the future, with men reporting a higher comfort level than women (43% versus 33%). Nearly four in 10 respondents would not be comfortable using their phone to purchase something at checkout, but 6% do currently pay at the register with a mobile phone."

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Although in Malaysia 73% of population shops online at least once a month, concerns arise over online payments security.

"A PayPal survey shows that mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, become the preferred medium for online shopping, with half of respondents using these devices for ecommerce at least once a month, spending over RM200 shopping online over the last three months."

"Findings also reveal that the top concerns relating to online shopping security were financial details being stolen by cyber-criminals and falling to fraud, quoted by 58% of those surveyed, followed by having to share credit card details with a website not visited before (23%), with the fear of not getting what was ordered (9% of respondents) and of receiving damaged goods (6%) still persisting among online shoppers."

"However, only 11% of those who answered the survey actually encountered any form of fraudulent activity when shopping online. And although cross-border shopping was becoming increasingly popular, respondents had more concerns about security when it came to shopping from overseas websites."

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By comparing delivery costs within and out of borders, the latter requires, the least, twice the amount for shipping goods.

"It is a major logistical issue in the cross-border business in Europe which should be given prime importance and be solved in order to create a digital single market. It could also be a major driver for merchants to start selling to foreign markets."

"Improving delivery conditions within the EU has also been identified by the European Commission as one of the top five priorities to boost ecommerce before 2015."

"It is also relevant that cross- border delivery costs are decreased, as they form a competitive disadvantage for foreign retailers over the local ecommerce players. One of the factors that make cross- border delivery expensive is the fact that merchants often have to ship random, scattered packages to isolated destinations. One suggestion to improve cost efficiency could thus be to create export lanes and allow merchants to bundle their ecommerce exports to foreign destinations."

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