At the close of 2013, mobile commerce was cited as a major – if not the primary – driving force behind record ecommerce sales during the 2013 holiday shopping season.
MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce, released on Wednesday the first report in its Global Consumer Insights Series on Mobile Money.
We’re told the report analyzes data from 10,000 respondents in some 13 countries, highlighting regional and global trends in mobile money uptake.
No surprisingly, the worldwide growth in mobile payments adoption is strongly influencing consumer attitudes toward mCommerce for the better.
The report, carried out in partnership with On Device Research, highlights the importance of mobile money users to the overall m-commerce market, as this group is 26 per cent more likely to purchase via mobile. Globally, 91 per cent made some form of mobile purchase in 2013 as opposed to 65 per cent of all mobile consumers.
“Mobile money users also spend more on individual purchases,” the report reads. “They are 10 percent less likely to make low value payments and 14 percent more likely to make mid-value purchases.”
“Our 2014 Mobile Money Insight Report clearly highlights that early adopters of mobile money are key to accelerating the growth of mobile commerce,” says Rimma Perelmuter, CEO at MEF. “This is true both in terms of their propensity to spend more on individual purchases and their likelihood to engage with a wider array of mobile services. In many markets, mobile money has already hit the mainstream, with Africa leading the way. Faster mobile networks will only advance its adoption further worldwide.”
In the U.S., a similar phenomenon has been observed, as consumers increasingly prefer to not use cash for purchases.
“Over the last few decades, cash has gradually fallen out of favor amongst consumers at large. Currently, two-thirds of the public prefer to make payments via credit and debit cards,” says the team at PayAnywhere, a top payment solutions provider in the U.S. “In the near future, another form of payment is set to further squeeze cash right out of the loop.”
