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1 Apr 2026

An awards scheme celebrating independent bike shops that go above and beyond for their communities launches this week.

26 Mar 2026

Bira has welcomed the government's £319 million investment in high street revitalisation, while warning that without reform of business rates and action on overseas imports, many high...

19 Mar 2026

This one's sobering: 42% of small businesses reported a cyber breach in 2024, according to the National Cyber Security Centre. And it's not just massive corporations being targeted. It's small,...

19 Mar 2026

The Chancellor held a roundtable discussion on a future high street strategy last week, with Bira the sole voice representing smaller retail businesses. Read an update on Bira's place at a...

18 Mar 2026

An independent bike shop is refusing to sell or repair e-scooters over concerns about how they are being used, with the area’s police force backing the call and urging others to follow...

17 Mar 2026

Walking, wheeling and cycling across the Liverpool City Region are saving the NHS £53.8 million every year, according to the latest Walking and Cycling Index, with cycling playing a key...

13 Mar 2026

Findings from consumer rights publication Which? add to calls from the E-Bike Positive campaign to better scrutinise these sites and promote quality e-bikes from reputable manufacturers and...

6 Mar 2026

The Metropolitan Police have seized more than 50 illegal e-bikes during a two-day crackdown in London as part of a wider effort to tackle crime linked to illegally modified electric bikes.

5 Mar 2026

ACT parent company Bira has warned that the Chanellor's Spring Statement offered no new support for high street businesses, as rising tensions in the Middle East threaten to push up energy...

4 Mar 2026

The UK cycle industry were brought together at COREbike 2026, with retailers, distributors and industry partners gathering for several days of meetings, networking and product showcases.

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A fifth of Brits prefer using mobile phones to make payments in shops.

Posted on in Business News , Cycles News

One in five UK consumers (20%) prefer using mobile payment services such as Apple Pay over cash (17%) or chip & PIN card payments (10%) for in-store purchases, a new survey has reported.

pay by phone

Contactless card payments remain the most popular payment option (48%), but younger consumers are driving the adoption of services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, with three in ten 18-24-year-olds identifying mobile payments as their preferred option (30%), according to the survey.

Nearly nine in ten of those who prefer contactless payments say convenience is one of the key reasons for doing so (88%).

“Cash, on the other hand, may not be the convenient option it once was, as two in five (40%) respondents who preferred contactless said they never carried cash. In fact, nearly a third (31%) of all survey respondents said that they never carried cash, while one in fifteen (7%) admitted that they didn’t even know their PIN,” the researchers say.

“Less than half (47%) of our respondents said they would happily shop with a cash-only business, while one in seven people (13%) said that they wouldn’t because they never carry cash. One in three (33%) would still consider shopping with a cash-only business but admit that they’d find it a hassle.”

The survey also found that men are 22% less likely to choose contactless payments and that uptake varies between different UK regions, with consumers in Scotland the most likely to prefer contactless payments (63%) and consumers in Wales the least likely (33%).

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