Mobile payments are going to hit the mainstream within four years.
At least that’s the overwhelming majority opinion of nearly 1,000 executives in the financial services, technology, telecommunications, and retail industries.
The survey, which was conducted by by KPMG International, found that 83% of respondents believe that mobile payments will be mainstream within four years.
9% see mobile payments as already being mainstream. On the other hand, 46% believe mobile payments will be mainstream within two years.
Seventy-two percent of the executives said that mobile payments are now or will be reasonably important in the future, with specialist online systems building on its leading position as a payment method, and m-banking and near field communication (NFC) gaining significantly greater traction than today. Fifty-eight percent said they have a mobile payments strategy in place.
“We believe that exploding smartphone growth and myriad opportunities will grow mobile payments at a much faster rate than our respondents anticipate,” says Gary Matuszak, KPMG Global Chair of the Technology, Communication and Entertainment practice. “A wide variety of payments is ready for adoption, as several key players already provide or are rolling out mobile payments, and interest among consumers in utilizing mobile payments is growing, in line with the industry’s readiness to deploy them.”
81% of survey respondents believe that convenience and accessibility will be the biggest driving factors behind mobile payments platforms. Simplicity and ease of use were cited as the top attributes by 73% of respondents. Meanwhile, security was the answer for 57%, followed by low cost at 43%.
