UK Mobile Commerce Following U.S. Lead, Expected to Grow to $200 Billion by 2019
The ability to make purchases on-the-go via mobile is booming. In the U.S., for instance, mobile ticketing has grown like wildfire. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) mTicket program accounted for 15 percent of ticket sales within three quarters after it was launched and the New York Waterways mobile ticketing business grew to 25 percent of sales in under two years.
Now a report from Juniper Research confirms that the same phenomenon is finding a home in the UK. Its research shows that mobile phone and tablet users will conduct up to 195 billion mobile commerce transactions per annum by 2019.
The report — “Mobile Commerce Markets: Key Sector Strategies, Opportunities & Forecasts 2014-2019″ — also suggests that usage will be goosed by the launch of Apple Pay, together with a host of anticipated deployments by banks using solutions based on HCE (Host Card Emulation) technology.
But it’s digital goods that are moving the most.
“The highest net increase in transaction volumes will occur in the digital goods sector, fuelled by a surge in micropayments for in-app purchases, notably within arenas such as social gaming,” notes Juniper Research. “The report highlighted the opportunity for digital content monetisation presented by direct carrier billing, particularly within underbanked regions and demographics.”
That’s an amazing transformation of the purchasing marketplace.
“Storefronts that have deployed carrier billing solutions have already seen positive results across a range of indicators – higher conversion rates, higher average transaction values, higher transaction volumes,” says report author Dr. Windsor Holden. “For the first time, they can monetise consumers who would otherwise have been excluded either because they lacked a credit card or because they were unwilling to enter card details online.”
Another takeaway?
“Rather than focusing purely on payments, stakeholders need to emphasise the synergies between mobile payment and loyalty to persuade retailers to become engaged,” notes the research firm.
