The use of digital transactions continues to rise, but user trends differ by generation.
Consumers across all age groups are adopting the use of mobile wallets on an increasing basis, but some generations are following this trend much more enthusiastically than others.
While some are using this technology quite readily, others are more hesitant to use regularly or at all.
PYMNTS has release the results of their “The Mobile Wallet Challenge: Replacing Physical with Digital” study. The research was conducted in collaboration with ACI Worldwide. It involved surveying more than 2,000 consumers in the United States regarding their comfort levels and interest in the use of mobile wallets for finance management and to store sensitive personal information.
The outcome of the survey indicated that while the features of these apps are being used by consumers in all age groups, it is particularly millennials and bridge millennials who are using the technology the most.
Among all living generations, the average US consumer uses 5.5 features from mobile wallets.
As popular as these digital payment tools may be, baby boomers and older generations were considerably less likely to adopt this technology. They were reported to use under half as many of the features as the average across all generations. Consumers in the age groups of baby boomers and older used an average of only 2.5 digital payment features.
On the other hand, millennials were found to be the most enthusiastic and willing users of the technology. They used about three times that number of features on average. The average millennial uses 8.1 of the features on average.
The next biggest users were bridge millennials – individuals born between 1980 and 1989 – between generation X and the millennials themselves. Though technically a part of the millennial generation, bridge millennials tend to have different behaviors from millennials as a whole when it comes to the use of technology. Still, bridge millennials were still the users of 7.9 features from their mobile wallets on average.
The PYMNTS research debunked the assumption that the use of mobile payments apps decreases with generational age. Gen Z consumers were found to use substantially fewer features than millennials and bridge millennials, having used only 6.7 features on average.
