A quarter of Australians now refuse to shop at cash-only businesses, with more than half stating cash-only organisations are hard to do business with, according to research by PayPal Australia.

The payment company found that cash-averse Australians remain committed to supporting small business, with four in five Australians saying they will support Australian small businesses wherever possible, as long as they’re equipped with the latest technology.

The research found that 70 per cent of Aussie consumers felt that small businesses needed the latest payments technology in order to remain competitive, while three in four Australians said that having the latest payments technology helps small businesses to grow.

“Our support for the ‘little guy’ is often at odds with our expectation to be able to pay via whichever method we choose,” Emma Hunt, director-small business, PayPal Australia, said.

“Consumers now expect the same level of technology from their local market stall as they experience at leading retailers and that level of expectation can be challenging and expensive for Aussie small businesses.”

The research comes as PayPal announces the general availability of its NFC-enabled PayPal Here Tap-and-Go device.

The new card reader, announced in March at Mobile World Congress, has been engineered to enable businesses to accept contactless card payments from debit and credit cards on the go. In the fast evolving retail landscape, preference for Chip and PIN technology, which was mandated across Australian card payments terminals as recently as 2014, is rapidly being superseded by tap and go. When asked for their preference, Aussies cited speed (71 per cent) and ease of use (69 per cent) as the top factors for using tap and go over chip and PIN.