Even with this massive share, its use represents only a tiny fraction of total retail payments.
Mobile wallet use is beginning to take off, and Apple Pay is leading the way with a considerable market share. That said, even with such a high position among transactions made via smartphone, it barely represents a sliver of total in-store payments.
The use of these payment apps for in-store commerce is rising but is barely there next to cash and cards.
The new PYMNTS report titled “Mobile Wallets Adoption: Apple Pay @8 – Still the Big Fish In A Small Mobile Wallets Pond” showed that while these apps are rising substantially in popularity, they have yet to represent a meaningful portion of the total transactions in the retail market.
The total penetration of these applications has reached only 5.8 percent of in-store transactions in the second quarter of this year. Though this certainly shows that the transaction method is being used and that it does exist, it is only a tiny sliver of the total transactions in retail including all payment method use.
What is quite interesting from the report’s figures is the rate of growth this figure represents. At 5.8 percent of all transactions, that represents a growth of 29 percent of penetration in only a year.
Mobile wallets are back to competing heavily with contactless cards for in-store purchases.
The data in the report showed that contactless cards are reaching a dominant position among brick-and-mortar shopping transactions. This, according to the research based on responses from 2,280 consumers.
What the PYMNTS survey showed was that consumers continue to feel a higher level of security with the use of contactless cards than they do with smartphone-based payment apps. About half the contactless card user respondents in the survey said that security was a top reason that they chose the plastic card over the app when making a transaction.
Interestingly, only 31 percent of the consumers who use mobile wallets seemed concerned, saying that they felt that some of the top reasons they chose this payment method is that they associated with a low chance of fraud or data security.
