PeruAnd then paying became yapear
Paying in Peru looks very different than it did just a few years ago. In a country where many people work outside the formal economy, paying by phone took off quickly. Yape is the biggest example. It’s now so widely used that its name has become a verb: yapear. Now, Peru’s Central Reserve Bank is working to make these different ways to pay work with each other.
The way locals pay
Local payment methods to know
Online payments mix eCommerce 2026 projections
An informal but digital-first economy
Around 56% of Peruvians work in the informal sector1. At the same time, access to digital payments is growing as formal employment and incomes improve. Today, almost 7 in 10 Peruvian adults have an account or eWallet. Consumers are also making more digital payments. In just four years, the number of digital payments made by the average Peruvian grew almost sevenfold2.
Whatever they’re buying, and whether they’re formally banked or not, one platform has become Peru’s overwhelming market leader: Yape.
Part of everyday Peru
Owned by Peru’s largest bank, BCP, Yape has over 19 million active monthly users3, around 82% of Peru’s economically active population. Seven in ten smartphone owners use it. Even street vendors accept Yape by QR code, and it has become the default for smaller, everyday payments.
Online, it’s just as dominant. Yape takes 70% of all eWallet eCommerce volume in Peru, well ahead of other options. And with Yape-on-file, shoppers can save Yape at checkout the way they’d save a card, without having to scan a QR code or enter their credentials, which makes it the perfect candidate for recurring payments.
What happens when you add Yape
eWallets account for more than half of ride-hailing and delivery volume in Peru, making Yape a natural fit. And its reach goes well beyond checkout: Yape has brought more than 4.5 million Peruvians4 into the financial system, giving merchants a way to reach customers who may have previously sat outside it.
When one of our food delivery merchants added Yape, 40% of the people paying with it were brand-new customers. The other 60% were existing customers who switched over from cash and cards. Eight months later, Yape makes up 25% of the merchant’s TPV.
- Brand-new customers
- Existing customers switching from cards/cash
We’ve seen something similar in retail. For one merchant, Yape overtook cards within three months of launch, peaking at two-thirds of its TPV, which grew more than 25% in six months, while processing costs fell by 30%.
Consumers lead, banks follow
The country’s other major banks, including BBVA, Interbank and Scotiabank, offer their own mobile payment function, Plin. Together, Plin and Yape are integral to Peru’s everyday payments landscape, but for years they operated separately: Yape users could only send money to Yape users, and Plin users to Plin users.
That changed in 2023. As part of a multi-phase interoperability strategy from Peru’s Central Reserve Bank, Yape and Plin connected for the first time, allowing people to send money between the two. The habit took hold fast: by mid-2025, Peruvians were making more than 186 million interoperable transactions per month. By 2028, A2A payment systems are projected to account for 18% of Peru’s eCommerce transactions.
Cards still carry the big tickets
Cards remain the backbone of Peruvian eCommerce. In 2025, debit cards made up 35% of online volume and credit cards 29%.
But Peruvians use their credit cards a little differently. Much like shoppers in Argentina and Türkiye, they use them as financing tools, splitting larger purchases into cuotas, or installments. It’s why credit cards lead in travel, covering around half of that vertical’s volume.
In this context, cash’s share of payments is falling. Across the economy, its share more than halved between 2019 and 2024. Online, the change is gentler. Cash-based methods such as PagoEfectivo still make up 8% of eCommerce volume, although that share is expected to fall slightly by 2028.
Buying beyond borders
Peruvians also spend a lot with businesses outside the country. Cross-border sales make up 32% of eCommerce volume, second only to Mexico in Latin America, and we expect that share to reach 33% by 2028.
And there’s more spending to come: Peru’s eCommerce market as a whole is set to grow from US$ 22 billion in 2025 to US$ 33.5 billion by 2028.
In Peru, you see the change in the smallest moments. Splitting lunch, paying a street vendor, sending money to a friend, things that used to mean reaching for cash can now mean reaching for your phone. And those small moments shape what people expect elsewhere. When they get to an online checkout, they want to pay in the same ways that already feel natural to them.