Consumers here still feel most transactions will be based on cash at least until 2020.
An Accenture study showed mobile payments awareness has reached 56 percent of consumers in North America. This represents a 4 percent increase over the figures recorded a year ago. That said, those same consumers don’t appear to be adopting mobile wallets.
Regular mobile payments usage has stayed at 19 percent among North American consumers.
This, despite the fact that a much higher number actually know the transaction method exists. Among the respondents in the mobile payments awareness study, 60 percent are still using cash at least once per week for buying something from a merchant.
These were the results of the Accenture 2016 North America Consumer Digital Payments Survey. It involved the participation of over 4,000 smartphone users. Those respondents lived in either Canada or the United States.
The mobile payments awareness research did indicate that consumers are interested in the technology.
They expressed optimism about future optimism of mobile payments even if they were not yet regularly using them. The respondents expect a 60 percent increase in mobile wallet app use from debit and credit card networks.
The trend they predicted was a rise from 14 percent by the end of this year to become 22 percent at the close of 2020. Through technology companies, the numbers were only slightly lower. The prediction was from this year’s 13 percent to 21 percent by the end of 2020.
Sixty four percent of the respondents had never used an in-store mobile payment. Among them:
• 37 percent reported skipping in-store mobile transactions as plastic and cash were adequately suiting their payments requirements.
• 21 percent did not want to enter sensitive data such as debit or credit card numbers into their smartphones.
• 19 percent are worried about the risk of unauthorized transactions.
At this point, it appears as though mobile payments awareness is no longer among the top barriers to adoption. Instead, mobile wallet providers will need to address some of the other concerns stopping consumer usage of this tech. Still, among the consumers who do use it, the vast majority (76 percent) said they were satisfied with their experience.
