Almost overnight, mobile payments have transitioned from unfamiliar mobile feature to a commonplace staple of the typical mobile user’s experience.
According to the latest report from IDC Financial Insights, the eighth annual Consumer Payments Survey, mobile payments are now routinely used by nearly one-third of Americans.
Business Strategy: Results from the 2012 Consumer Payments Survey found that mobile payments have more than doubled in popularity, reaching over 33% of survey respondents.
“Of those that had made a mobile payment,” the report reads, “more than half used PayPal Mobile (56%), with Amazon Payments and Apple’s iTunes service statistically tied at about 40%. In addition, prepaid cards showed strong growth, particularly in the network branded and benefit submarkets.”
For the second year in a row, both biller and bank-operated online bill pay sites were used by more than 50% of the respondents. Overall, 73.5% of U.S. consumers now use online bill payment.
“This confirms that online bill payment is now the dominant way we pay bills in the U.S.,” IDC says.
“Based on our results, we expect to see continued growth in open-loop prepaid cards and mobile payments next year, and believe that the improvements being offered in electronic bill delivery will break electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) out of its doldrums as well,” says Aaron McPherson, Practice Director at IDC Financial Insights. “The advent of new card-linked offer programs should increase the influence of rewards on the average consumer, however, this will depend on how many banks choose to move ahead aggressively with these programs, and how many merchants choose to support them.”
