Tag: mobile wallets

Gartner has predicted that by 2018, about 50 percent of shoppers will use wearables or smartphones to pay for purchases.

Research firm, Gartner Inc., has released a recent prediction that wearable technology will play a tremendously larger role in mobile payments over the next few years, saying that half of all consumers will be using them or smartphones for that purpose by the close of 2018.

This forecast has come at a time in which mobile payments are still only just gaining initial adoption.

In markets such as Japan, North America and many countries throughout Western Europe, mobile payments remain a small but growing transaction technology. Gartner feels that by 2018, they will have become popular enough that fifty percent of consumers will be using their smartphones or wearable technology devices in order to complete transactions at checkout counters in retail stores and restaurants.

This also suggests that Gartner feels that wearable technology will also be growing in its popularity.

According to Gartner principal research analyst, Amanda Sabia, “Innovation in apps, mobile devices and mobile services are impacting traditional business models, particularly in the way people use personal technology for productivity and pleasure.” Sabia also pointed out the importance that product managers come to understand who these shoppers actually are when it comes to catering to new devices and providing services, while discovering just how those gadgets are being used by those customers. “Knowing your customer is imperative in order to capture a fair share of spending opportunities in this dynamic marketplace.”

There were three types of mobile payments that were described by Gartner within its recent report. It identified them as: wearables or smartphone based payments, branded mobile wallets from credit card issuers or banks, or branded mobile wallets from retailers.

Still, Gartner reported that those mobile payments services based on NFC technology – such as Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay – will remain limited throughout the length of the forecast period simply because the partnerships between retailers and financial organizations for using smartphones and wearable technology in that way will not yet have been established. Moreover, consumers have yet to see the value in that type of payment transaction.

A recent Bankrate.com survey has shown that mobile wallet apps still won’t go mainstream this year.

The results of a survey conducted by Bankrate.com have now been released and have revealed that, for the most part, adults in the United States don’t plan to use mobile payments in order to pay for their holiday shopping purchases.

In fact, the research showed that only 14 percent of U.S. adults said they’d use a mobile wallet this holiday season.

Among the reasons the Bankrate.com survey found were standing in the way of the use of mobile payments by American consumers, there was one that stood out the most. Many shoppers simply don’t feel that using Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and other mobile wallets is safe. In fact, 36 percent of the participants in the survey said they were worried about the security of these mobile apps. The survey involved the participation of one thousand adults in the United States.

Aside from security, another concern people had about mobile payments was about convenience.

Another 31 percent of the survey’s respondents said that they felt that other types of payment method would be more convenient for them to use than mobile wallets.

While Apple Pay, the mobile wallet from the iPhone maker, saw a great deal of media attention when it first debuted in the United States, last year, it hasn’t seem to have taken on a very powerful charge as many had expected. Some had predicted that Apple would pave the way for smartphone based payments as a whole. However, none of the wallet apps have really caught on with mainstream consumers.

The data from this survey only further underscored the great distance that this mobile technology has ahead of it before it can be considered to be a major part of the transaction industry in the country.

Still, as much as mobile payments may not be here yet, it is still expected that they will one day play an integral role in the American retail transaction system experience and that this day will not be long off. The shakeup has already begun as many retailers update the point of sale tech.