THE MOVE TOWARDS CASHLESS SOCIETY: HOW TO IMPROVE CONSUMERS' USE OF BANK CARDS IN RETAIL STORES?

The World Health Organization says money can spread all varieties of bacteria and viruses. A measure that can be taken to help stop the spread of Covid-19 is decreasing or ideally, eliminating, the use of cash and promoting the use of contactless payments. Cash remains a frequently used retail payment method specifically for small-value purchases. The switch from cash to cards and other payment methods is one of the major trends in consumer shopping financial behavior. This research investigates explaining factors of bank cards use for payment purposes. It builds on an integration of the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior to explain customers' intention to use bank cards. Data was collected with a face-to-face survey in retailing context. The proposed model was tested through the PLS-SEM approach. Results show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and attitude are prominent predictors of the behavioral intention to use bank cards for payment purposes in retail stores. The findings provide insights to service vendors and merchants on how to increase customers' use of cards rather than cash.