93% of Online Purchases in Pakistan Were Made With E-Wallets During FY25

93% of online purchases were made through accounts or wallets, up from 87% in FY24, according to the State Bank of Pakistan’s annual Payment Systems Review for FY25. Data revealed that during FY25, around 684 million e-commerce transactions were executed through accounts or digital wallets, compared to just 52 million via debit or credit cards. Meanwhile, retail payments have witnessed significant growth in the last year, reaching 9.1 billion transactions valuing PKR 612 trillion, and growing by 38% and 12% respectively on a YoY basis. Transactions through digital channels now constitute over 88% of retail payments, a notable jump from 78% in FY23 and 85% in FY24, as customers increasingly embraced mobile apps, internet banking, and e-money wallets for day to-day payments. Usage of payment cards, mainly dominated by debit cards (77%), also increased significantly during FY25. Card-based payments at domestic and international POS terminals and e commerce platforms registered impressive year-on-year growth of around 41%. During the year, consumers carried out over 415 million transactions at POS terminals and 111 million on e-commerce platforms, compared to 287 million and 78 million, respectively, in FY24. This surge highlights the rising adoption of digital retail payments and the growing preference for card-based transactions in both physical and online marketplaces. POS terminals, deployed at merchant outlets across the country, played a vital role in enabling digital payment acceptance. On average, nearly one million transactions were processed daily through POS machines, amounting to 378 million transactions with a total value of PKR 2.1 trillion. This reflects a robust annual growth of 39% in volume and 37% in value. In addition to POS infrastructure, QR-based acceptance also gained traction, with around 1 million merchants enabled to receive digital payments. During FY25, QR code–based transactions reached over 86 million in volume, amounting to PKR 234 billion, offering a convenient and cost-effective alternative to POS-based solutions. Overall, Payments through mobile app-based banking channel, which includes mobile apps provided by Banks, BBs, and EMIs, processed 6.2 billion transactions worth PKR 97.0 trillion, while internet banking handled 0.3 billion transactions valued at PKR 39.2 trillion. On year-on-year basis, transactions through mobile apps increased by 52% while through internet banking, it increased by 33%.