Visa Europe has predicted a significant rise in the use of smart phones as a tool of payment in UK retail, with a trebling of use predicted within the next five years, which would represent about £1.2 billion in revenue, according to the International Business Times.
The European branch of the American financial services company has found, through extensive surveying, that 25 per cent of UK consumers believe that by 2020 they will spend more than £50 per week through phone transactions. Visa says that at present about one in 12 do so.
Some 60 per cent of the British population will pay for purchases through their mobiles at least once per week by 2020, the research has found, though Visa Europe regards this as a conservative estimation.
The company stated, “Contactless and online commerce enhancements have been key in paving the way for the next generation of mobile payment technology. The environmental conditions are already in place to meet the demands and expectations for digital payments. It’s no longer a question of ‘if’ consumers will embrace this new way to pay – it’s when – and for us the next 12 months are when mobile payments become mainstream.”
The company also said that one in five Europeans will use their smart phones for payments each day by 2020 (10 per cent of EU residents do so at the moment) , based on a servey carried out in the UK, Spain, Poland, German, France, and Finland.
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly.
