Knowing your Gen Z payment preferences is essential – especially in a market as sophisticated as Germany. Indeed, any e-commerce merchant worth their salt knows that German Gen Z expectations across online services are currently higher than ever – even more so as we enter 2026. As new technology has expanded the performance and potential of e-commerce stores, it has also placed more pressure on merchants to enhance their customer experience.
These high customer expectations hold doubly true for payments, potentially the most critical part of the entire buyer journey for brands looking to turn a profit.
Today, all customers expect a seamless, frictionless payment experience when shopping online. As the high rates of cart abandonment attest, they are more than willing to stop shopping and go elsewhere if their needs aren’t being catered to.
The best way to address these needs for improved payments is to determine empirically what customers are actually looking for on a national basis. For instance, the only way brands operating in Germany can deliver the payment expectations of those customers is by knowing their preferences inside out.
So, what should merchants and providers strive for when delivering payments in Germany? This article will closely examine Brite Payment’s recent survey of over 2,000 German customers to determine their payment preferences. Read on to learn more.
Openness to New Options
Germany is experiencing rapid growth in cashless transactions and e-commerce payments. Although Germany was once a very cash-centric society, the growth of e-commerce has led to a new generation of German shoppers opting for new payment methods when buying goods and services online.
There is a widespread perception that German online consumers are more cautious about their payment methods than their counterparts in other European regions. However, our data revealed that some German demographics were careful about adopting new payment methods, while others were more open to the idea, and a significant proportion remained undecided.
When we asked about their openness to trying out new online payment methods, 25% of German respondents said they were willing to try a new way to pay online. Meanwhile, 40% are actively resistant to new methods. This suggests that, while things are changing in Germany regarding new options, many outdated mindsets still need to be altered.
Furthermore, 37.2% of respondents reported being neutral about trying new payment options. On the face of it, this figure might seem disheartening. However, this ambivalence suggests that merchants and payment providers have an opportunity to change the minds of these consumers and get them on board, provided they are made aware of the benefits of new payment methods.
Generational Preferences
Interestingly, consumer openness to new payment methods depends on age, with younger demographics showing a greater preference for novel payments than older individuals.
Indeed, Germans over the age of 60 are the least open to new options, with only half claiming they would embrace new payment methods. On the other hand, 29.9% of Millennials (Germans aged 30–39) and 30% of Gen Z (Germans aged 18–29) reported being very receptive to new payment methods.
In this respect, digital Wallets emerged as the top payment preference for young people, with 34.8% of Gen Z consumers using them daily or weekly, while 62.6% used them monthly instead. Meanwhile, the regular usage of digital wallets increased by 4.4 percentage points, from 58.2% in 2024 to 62.6% in 2025.
On the other hand, credit cards are becoming much less prevalent among younger consumers, with only 32.0% using them monthly and 45.0% never using them at all.
This suggests that German customers, particularly younger consumers, may be seeking a new payment method that meets all their payment preferences—offering secure, fast, and efficient payments.
Pay by Bank and German Gen Z
Our survey data has revealed that the second biggest payment method to see growth was Pay by Bank, with regular usage among German Gen Z consumers in particular growing by 3.4 percentage points, from 42.7% in 2024 to 46.1% in 2025.
We’ve previously discussed what Pay by Bank is, but we’ll recap it again here for the benefit of the uninitiated. Simply put, Pay by Bank payments utilise account-to-account transfers to make direct payments between bank accounts, bypassing card networks and intermediaries.
Its main advantages — especially when it is underpinned by open banking and secure bank APIs mandated by PSD2 — are its low cost compared to traditional card payments, high security, and speed. Due to this, Pay by Bank has gained significant popularity since the advent of open banking, enabling instant processing and revolutionising payments in Europe.
Pay by Bank is also becoming increasingly popular in Germany. The survey results show that familiarity with this payment method rose from 66.9% in 2024 to 72.4% in 2025. Meanwhile, 75.3% of consumers who have used Pay by Bank said they would do so again, indicating that simply convincing consumers to use it once has significant conversion potential.
Furthermore, Pay by Bank is especially popular among younger demographics, with 81% stating they are familiar with it, and 46.1% claiming they use it monthly or more frequently. Only 23.4% of 18–29s say they have never used Pay by Bank, compared to 36.2% of all older demographics — showing higher awareness of this payment method.
Conclusion
Are you a merchant opening in German markets looking to integrate new payment methods into your checkout?
Brite boasts a wealth of experience and resources to help e-commerce merchants understand European markets and the new payment technologies that can help them tap into their consumers. So, if you’d like to learn more about the benefits of Pay by Bank and other payment trends, check out Brite Payments’ resources now.
