E-Signature Market Size and Share Analysis by Component (Software, Hardware, Service), Deployment Type (Cloud, On-Premises), Type (Username and Personal Identification Number, Signature Pad at Point of Sale, Clickwrap, Voice Signature), Use Case (Unmediated, Mediated, Third Party, Internal), Vertical (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance, Government, IT & Telecom, Healthcare, Legal) – Demand Forecast to 2030

Market Overview

The global e-signature market was valued at $1,527.7 million in 2021, and it is expected to reach $12,721.5 million by 2030, advancing at a CAGR of 26.6% during 2021–2030. This is ascribed to the growing security concerns across enterprises, the increasing government support, and the surging adoption of innovative technologies in developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil.

Due to the existence of several providers, the market has a moderate client base all over the world. It has a distinguished intense competition, a large number of participants, and medium product differentiation. Because of the constant demand for more innovative services, the market has great brand recognition power. Moreover, due to their priority of staying ahead of competitors, market players have been involved in R&D investments and vertical integration.

Due to Growing Usage of Cloud-Based E-Signatures, Software Category Held Largest Share in 2021

The software category held the largest revenue share, of more than 40%, in 2021 in the market. The category is also expected to lead the market in the coming years, owing to the increasing use of cloud-based solutions and advanced e-signature solutions with encryption services, to ensure secure communication or sharing of digital documents. The adoption of cloud-based e-signature among enterprises for managing and protecting their critical data is also propelling the market growth in this category.

Demand for Clickwrap Signatures Will Grow Tremendously in Coming Years

The clickwrap signatures are gaining popularity in the market. Clickwrap enables users to agree to the terms of a contract or e-sign it by clicking "I agree", "I accept", or other similar keywords. This solution has the same legal effect as a wet signature and is considered similar to written or verbal contracts. As a result, the demand for these signatures will rise at a significant pace during the forecast period.

Vertical Insights

The BFSI vertical has significantly contributed to the e-signature market, accounting for the more than 30% revenue share in 2021. The popularity of online services, such as internet banking, mobile banking, and stock trading, has increased dramatically. Through customer-centric business applications, the BFSI vertical focuses on understanding consumer behavior, preferences, and choices. These solutions provide strong security, protect identities, and manage regulatory compliances. The e-signatures assist BFSI firms in simplifying complex business processes by providing enhanced security and faster customer onboarding. Moreover, the rapid shift toward digital platforms to provide streamlined services to their clients is increasing the need for these solutions. For instance, an average implementation time of large-sized organizations of e-signature is around 9 months; and for a medium-sized organization, it is more than 5 months.

Government agencies embrace e-signature to decrease forgeries and increase public trust in private documentation. Governments across the globe, especially in North America and Europe, have been encouraging organizations for the adoption of e-signature solutions to drive efficiency and security in their processes. Currently, there are over 75 countries globally that recognize the legal validity of e-signatures.

Furthermore, the use of e-signature in IT departments of public and commercial enterprises improves the security of all IT-related tasks. E-signs are known to improve an organization’s efficiency, particularly in its contractual processes. For telecom companies with multiple branches and who need to retain contracts or agreements for future use, significant savings can be made by adopting e-signatures, as these signatures can help telecom companies to cut on paper, printing, legal, communication, and storage costs.

Similarly, the healthcare industry is gradually adopting digital technologies for medical recording and invoice payment. These technologies boost healthcare personnel's productivity, improve healthcare services, and strengthen security. The e-signatures can be used to electronically sign medical records and forms. These signatures help provide improved compliance, digital transformation, simple e-record maintenance, and reduced manual processing of healthcare papers.

E-signature is also an important part of the paperless workflow in the legal industry. The electronic data can be easily stored in a database, which can then be used to automatically send validations to clients. Once an agreement has been electronically signed, the documents and signatures are protected by a tamper-evident seal. There are numerous use cases, such as notices, settlements, incident descriptions, pleadings, depositions, policy management, and so on. The solution enables efficient document centralization, as well as brand image enhancement and fraud risk reduction.

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Regional Insights

Globally, North America held the largest market share, of more than 35%, in 2021. This is primarily due to factors such as the increasing use of e-signatures to reduce online fraud, their surging applications in the BFSI and healthcare sectors, and rising investments in advanced technologies to increase productivity, across the region. Supporting e-signature laws and regulations in the U.S. and Canada are also driving the regional market growth.

The U.S. e-signature market held majority of the revenue of North America in 2021. This is ascribed to the increase in the number of digital services, which have resulted in the surging need for app-based services. The rising internet penetration, combined with growing security concerns among businesses, is driving the demand for these solutions across the U.S.

Moreover, the European market is rapidly expanding as a result of the increase in the prevalence of remote working, favorable government laws and regulations, rise in the volume of online documentation processes, and cost-effectiveness of these signatures. Furthermore, businesses in Europe are widely adopting remote working and hybrid work models, which are also driving the regional market growth. According to statistics, more than 80% of European business leaders believe that hybrid-model companies are more profitable.

In Europe, the German market is growing at a tremendous rate. This is attributed to the technological advancements, the presence of a large number of manufacturing and automotive companies, the increase in implementation of Industry 4.0 practices across all verticals, and the rise in the penetration of 5G technology, in the country. The German Industry 4.0 is a multi-year strategic initiative aimed at shaping digital transformation across all industries in the country.

On the other hand, the APAC e-signature market is expected to exhibit the fastest growth during the forecast period, because of the increasing adoption of digital services, the growing e-commerce sector, and the rising user acceptance of paperless transactions, online billing, and payment facilities. Furthermore, other factors driving the market growth include improving digital infrastructure, surging number of SMEs, and increasing implementation of new and advanced technologies such as AI and ML.

In the region, China accounted for the largest market share in 2021, owing to the continuous expansion of its e-commerce and BFSI industries, which require these solutions to secure their documents and save time.

Furthermore, during the forecast period, the MEA market will continue to grow steadily. The GCC market is expected to gain traction, as a result of increased investments and collaboration among industry players in the region. Xerox Emirates, for example, collaborated with SigniFlow to provide electronic and digital signature technology.

Opportunities: E-Signature Is the Master Key to the 4.0 Revolution

Industry 4.0 emerges as a result of the fourth industrial revolution, based on new systems that enable the automation of various processes and sectors, uniting digital processes, technologies, and machines; for example, cloud computing or cloud services. This combination enables ubiquitous activities such as remote working, cloud-based data storage, and the improvement of corporate and industrial operations.

The market players are largely focusing on improving their cloud-based solutions, in order to tempt clients with increased security features and smooth solution management. Rather than installing a platform locally, cloud-based solutions help organizations with document authentication by utilizing a cloud-hosted signing service.

A user's digital signature key can be stored in the cloud during the deployment of a cloud-based system to provide mobility, allowing the user to sign from any internet-connected device such as a smartphone, tablet, and laptop. Cloud technology has grown in popularity, becoming robust and widely recognized at the enterprise level across a wide range of industries. The cloud service offers affordability, scalability, flexibility, 24/7 availability, vast storage space, auto-update capability, and other advantages. Furthermore, solution providers have formed an international group called the Cloud Signature Consortium to develop new standards for cloud-based e-signatures that are compliant with business and government regulations.

Players Involved in Strategic Developments to Gain Competitive Edge

The e-signature market is consolidated, with a few major players combinedly dominating the industry. Companies undergoing the digital revolution find that the electronic signature process is a significant catalyst in smoothing workflows and automating their document management systems. The market is expected to be more competitive in the coming years, as organizations increasingly adopt identity, security, and business productivity solutions.

In recent years, they have been involved in the launching of services/solutions and partnerships, in order to stay ahead of their competitors. For instance:

• In January 2022, Syncfusion Inc. launched BoldSign, a new electronic signature solution. BoldSign is a platform that provides a cloud app and a native.NET SDK that can be entrenched directly into business applications for contract sending, tracking, and signing.
• In November 2021, Adobe Inc. partnered with Major League Baseball (MLB). Through this, MLB is able to increase efficiency and fully digitize workflows that need an individual's approval, consent, or signature, including vendor contracts and player agreements.

Top Players in Electronic Signature Market Are:

• Adobe Inc.
• Secured Signing Limited
• SIGNiX Inc.
• Entrust Corporation
• Ascertia Limited
• OneSpan Inc.
• DocuSign Inc.
• THALES

Market Size Breakdown by Segment

The study offers comprehensive market segmentation analysis along with market estimation for the period 2015-2030.

Based on Component

• Software
• Hardware
• Service
  • Managed
  • Professional

Based on Deployment Type

• Cloud
• On-Premises

Based on Type

• Username and Personal Identification Number (PIN)
• Signature Pad at Point of Sale (POS)
• Clickwrap
• Voice Signature

Based on Use Case

• Unmediated
• Mediated
• Third Party
• Internal

Based on Vertical

• Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)
• Government
• Information Technology (IT) & Telecom
• Healthcare
• Legal

Geographical Analysis

• North America
  • U.S.
  • Canada
• Europe
  • Germany
  • France
  • U.K.
  • Italy
• Asia-Pacific (APAC)
  • Japan
  • China
  • India
  • Australia
• Latin America (LATAM)
  • Brazil
  • Mexico
• Middle East and Africa (MEA)
  • U.A.E.
  • Saudi Arabia