In its latest published report, Juniper Research forecasts that the gross merchandise transaction value of mobile payments for physical goods will surge past $170 billion globally within the next four years.
If the projection manifests, it will represent a three-fold increase over the $60 billion forecast for this year.
Juniper Research found that initial growth had been fueled by a dramatic upsurge in retail apps in the wake of the consumer smartphone explosion. However, there was an increasing industry awareness of the need to enable an integrated shopping experience within the wider context of a fast expanding eCommerce market, thus enabling seamless access to retail sites across multiple devices.
According to senior analyst David Snow, the estimate speaks to the growing importance of the mobile payments channel.
“Our research for this report underlined the importance of mobile as an extra channel to market, but Juniper believes that mobile campaigns must be tightly linked to print, online and store based campaigns to ensure consistency of customer experience,” Snow says. “Increasingly people will browse on one device such as a PC and then buy from another such as a smartphone.”
However, the Juniper report also advises that vendors need to innovate unceasingly as the market develops and becomes more competitive.
The full report can be reached at JuniperResearch.com.
