Digital Payments and Risk in E-Commerce: A Systematic Bibliometric Review and Future Research Agenda

This study presents a systematic, bibliometric review of research on digital payments and risk in e-commerce. Following the PRISMA protocol and the four-step bibliometric procedure of Donthu et al. (2021), data were retrieved from Elsevier’s Scopus database on 16 September 2026 using the search string “Digital Payments AND Risk”, and 805 peer-reviewed journal articles and reviews published between 2016 and 2026 were analysed in Biblioshiny. The literature is young and expanding rapidly, with an annual growth rate of 40.38%, yet it remains concentrated in a small set of journals and countries, notably China and India. Thematic mapping and keyword co-occurrence analysis show blockchain, electronic money and risk assessment as the best-developed themes, while fintech, digital payments, financial inclusion, cryptocurrency and central bank digital currency remain weakly developed and peripheral. Research on payment infrastructure and fraud and research on consumer adoption and trust continue to develop in parallel. The paper proposes a future research agenda, structured around the 5W1H framework, that targets neglected users, the e-commerce checkout, under-represented markets, longitudinal designs and integrated models linking safeguards with consumer trust.