Merchants winning the battle for mobile wallet supremacy — Javelin Strategy & Research — “In the rush to market, the main wallet value proposition, paying at the POS, wasn’t particularly compelling. In reality, loyalty and rewards will drive adoption, something merchants are doing particularly well,” said Krista Tedder, director of payments at Javelin Strategy & Research.”
Research
Three in ten iPhone owners now use Apple Pay
Apple Pay increasingly central to iPhone — Loup Ventures — “We estimate that Apple Pay now has over 252 million users, which equates to 31% of the active iPhone base… Adoption of Apple Pay continues to accelerate exponentially overseas compared to the US, with 85% of users being international vs 15% in the US… With the continued expansion into new markets and new partnerships with banks, we expect transaction growth of 200% over the next 12 months.”
Shoppers prefer Apple Pay over Walmart Pay
Walmart shoppers with access to Apple Pay are more likely to choose to use it than the store’s own Walmart Pay app, a new study has found, but those who do choose the retailer’s own app spend more at Walmart each month than those who use Apple Pay... More
Eight in ten POS terminals to support NFC payments by 2022
Shipments of NFC-ready POS terminals reached 24.7m in 2017 — Berg Insight — “The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU28+2 and North America, where 90% and 88% respectively of the POS terminals shipped [in 2017] featured NFC. NFC was also a very popular feature in many other major markets worldwide, including Brazil, Turkey and China… More than 78% of the world’s POS terminals will be NFC-ready in 2022, up from 50% in 2017.”
Juniper predicts gains in market share for OEM Pays
Apple Pay accounts for 1 in 2 OEM Pay users globally, reaching 200 million by 2020 — Juniper Research — “The global number of mobile contactless users will exceed 760 million by 2020, up from an estimated 440 million in 2018… The combined market share of Apple, Samsung and Google will reach 60% of global mobile contactless users by 2023, up from an estimated 50% in 2018. Other OEM Pay users, including the likes of Huawei Pay, Xiaomi Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay, will exceed 20 million by 2020.”
Eurosmart reports rise in smartphones with embedded secure elements
Eurosmart’s secure element shipment forecasts confirm a global market increase in all main market sectors — Eurosmart — “Trends for device manufacturers, mainly composed of high end smartphone manufacturers, became significant in 2017 with 400m embedded secure elements. The growth is important and equal to +21.2% compared with 2016 (330m of units) and 470m units are expected in 2018.”
Popularity of contactless payments pushes debit cards ahead of cash in the UK
Convenience of debit card payments puts cash in second place — UK Finance — “The popularity of contactless payments among UK consumers is a key driver of debit card growth. In total, across both debit and credit cards, the number of contactless payments increased by 97% during 2017 to 5.6bn. Almost two thirds (63%) of people in the UK now use contactless payments, and no age group or region falls below 50% usage.”
Starbucks continues to lead the US mobile payments market
23.4 million US consumers aged 14 and over will use Starbucks’ mobile app to make a purchase at the point of sale at least once every six months this year, research from eMarketer has found... More
US consumers are making fewer online purchases on their mobile phones due to ‘cumbersome payment methods’
Forrester: Mobile shopping stalls as payment hinders growth — Mobile Marketer — “Cumbersome payment methods that require too many keystrokes at checkout are impeding the adoption of commerce on mobile, where conversion rates are about half that of desktop and laptop platforms… The percentage of online US sales made on mobile phones dipped from 43% in 2016 to 36% last year… During that same time, ecommerce grew by 14%.”
Phoenix reports drop in number of US consumers making use of Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay
“Not just Apple Pay, but the two other major third party contactless wallets, Google Pay (formerly Android Pay) and Samsung Pay, are tracing a slow but definite descent in adoption among smartphone owners”, research conducted by Phoenix Marketing International has found... More
Chinese consumers made over 275bn mobile payments in 2017
China’s mobile payment posts robust growth in 2017 — Xinhua — “Domestic commercial banks handled over 37.5bn mobile payment transactions last year, up 46.06% year on year, according to the report from the Payment & Clearing Association of China. Non-banking payment institutions handled over 239bn mobile payment transactions, surging more than 146%.”
Microsoft researchers unveil NFC smart mat ‘sensing platform’
Project Zanzibar: Blurring the distinction between the digital and the physical worlds via tangible interaction in a portable implementation — Microsoft Research — “The Project Zanzibar mat combines capacitive sensing and near field communication (NFC) in a novel way, enabling multi-touch and hover gesture input to coexist with physical object manipulation and control. The Project Zanzibar research platform also introduces the power of portability in a tangible user interface because rather than provide its own display, it takes advantage of existing devices such as tablets. Roll it up, stow it and break it out at a picnic or on a train trip.”
One in five organizations say they have experienced a payments data theft in the last year
One in five organizations has experienced payments data theft over the past 12 months — ACI Worldwide — “36% of organizations believe they are at a greater risk of data breach than a year ago. 44% agreed with the view that: My company would not invest in fraud solutions that add friction to the customer experience.”
Four in five Americans want to use one platform to manage all their finances
Digital is the new language of money: Americans predict payment apps will move to the top spot in their wallet and would like to manage their financial lives in one place — Koski Research — “Americans predict that apps will be the most common in-person payment type in five years… More than four in five Americans (84%) say they are interested in managing their money from one online central platform for deposits, spending, and saving.”
Juniper predicts 2.1bn mobile wallet users in 2019
PayPal leads mobile wallet rankings as users forecast to pass 2bn next year — Juniper Research — “Nearly 2.1 billion consumers worldwide will use a mobile wallet to make a payment or send money in 2019, up by nearly 30% on the 1.6 billion recorded at the end of 2017… The report also argued that while QR code-based in-store payments had seen quite astonishing levels of adoption in China, successful use cases in Europe and North America were likely to be limited to ‘closed loop’ wallets such as those deployed by Starbucks and Walmart.”
40% more merchants to accept card payments by 2022
Payment card acceptance set to surge by 40% to 85m outlets worldwide by 2022 — RBR — “The number of card-accepting merchant outlets rose by an impressive 7m in 2016 to 61m. Double digit growth was recorded across Asia-Pacific, central and eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa. Despite recent strong growth, all three regions continue to be underserved in terms of card acceptance and are expected to remain the engines of global growth, driving the total number of outlets worldwide to 85m by 2022.”
Study finds consumers are losing interest in digital-only banks
Banking sector continues to evolve as digital-only banks are losing appeal globally — RFi Group — “While consumers showed substantial interests in digital-only banks in previous studies, global appetite for digital-only providers fell from 74% in H1 last year to 63% in H2, and appetite for digital-only main bank has also dropped from 50% to 44%… The findings suggest that traditional banks which continue to ‘up their game’ in engaging consumers digitally will likely be the ones to benefit in the near future.”
Survey: India now has a higher percentage of citizens with a mobile wallet than China
Mobile wallet is gradually displacing cash in India, says GlobalData — GlobalData — “India is one of the top markets globally in terms of mobile wallet adoption with 55.4% survey respondents indicating that they have a mobile wallet and use it. India is followed by China and Denmark… Mobile wallet transactions grew manifold in last five years, rising from R24bn (US$370.6m) in 2013 to R955bn ($14.74bn) in 2017, and will surpass R1tn ($15.44bn) mark in early 2018.”
One in four Europeans ready to make payments with a wearable device
Over 175 million Europeans ready to pay with wearable devices — Mastercard — “Overwhelming success of contactless cards peaks shopper demand for wearable payments… One quarter (24%) of Europeans expect to start using ‘tap and go’ contactless payments with a smartwatch, bracelet, keyring or other forms of wearable payments.”
eMarketer: Mobile payments adoption held back by ‘strong contactless card usage’ in Europe
Global proximity mobile payment users: eMarketer’s estimates for 2016–2021 — eMarketer — “In 2018, for the first time, more than one-third (34.9%) of smartphone users ages 14 and older will use a mobile phone to pay for a purchase at a physical point of sale (POS) at least once every six months… Adoption in parts of Western Europe has been held back by strong contactless card usage. Consumers appear less likely to tap and pay with their mobile phones when their credit and debit cards already offer a similar level of convenience.”