Mobile Payments Account For Nearly 20% Of Global Transactions
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
Ayden Mobile Payments Index finds consumers favor using tablets in retail e-commerce
Global provider of international and omni-channel payment solutions Ayden recently announced the results of its third Ayden Mobile Payments Index, which covered the period from September to December 2013. The data shows what many other studies have been revealing as of late: that mobile commerce is indeed on the rise. Mobile payments accounted for 19.5 percent of all transactions worldwide in December, up from 12.6 percent last December. This was a growth of 55 percent year-over-year. The index looked at the volume and value of mobile payments in five industries: travel, digital goods, gaming, retail, and ticketing. In particular, Ayden determined the retail industry’s mobile transaction volume has risen by 23 percent.
The index also shows that, in general, retail industry consumers choose tablet devices over smartphones and even PCs in certain cases to make larger purchases. For retail, tablet transaction volume stood at 16 percent, compared to smartphones, which had a transaction volume of only 7 percent. Ayden interprets these results as an indication that the retail industry, compared to the other vertical industries, has done the best job of improving the tablet user experience.
Ayden also found that Apple devices were the most popular platform for mobile payments through the months of September to December. During those four months, 41 percent of mobile transactions occurred on iPads and roughly 32 percent of transactions went through the iPhone. However, Android has continued to rise in popularity. In the month of December, Android devices captured a 38.6 percent share of mobile transactions, compared to the iPhone’s 60 percent share. Indeed, iPhone mobile transactions have steadily begun to decrease since April 2013, going from 68.5 percent in April to 62.5 percent in August, ending at 60 percent in December. On the other hand, Android has steadily been achieving a larger share of mobile transactions since April 2013 when it only accounted for 30.7 percent.
Ayden’s findings are helping retailers gain a better insight into consumer preferences in terms shopping via mobile devices. Considering retail consumers are showing tendencies to make higher value purchases via tablet, it would be in retailers’ best interest to keep developing strategies to cater to tablet users. Indeed, a recent study by Usablenet highlights some of tablet users’ preferences in terms of website layout, content, and experience when shopping on a tablet. Overall, these findings show that consumers want websites they’re viewing on a tablet to have the same content they would see on a desktop. Roughly 30 percent of respondents claim they’d like the content and experience to match the desktop site. However, responses also suggest that tablet-toting consumers are generally looking for a quick and easy experience, suggesting that user experience can, in some cases, trump utility. This is not to say that there’s a lot of room to make mistakes on the path to creating a user-friendly tablet experience. As has been established by many other studies, Usablenet also determined that it is important to get it right, considering 77 percent of respondents say that a poor or unsatisfying experience while viewing a website on a tablet would affect their willingness to purchase something from the site. For two-thirds of respondents, a mistake could also cost a retailer the valuable word-of-mouth it needs to keep gaining new customers.
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