Transaction Trends

It’s not particularity fresh news that mobile and online commerce at the POS has been the buzz for years among forward-thinking merchants, tech-savvy consumers and payments companies. But a survey from financial services firm and ETA member Discover in conjunction with technology research firm 451 Research released earlier this year has found that currently — some years into the fleshing out of the much-hyped future of mobile commerce — consumer enthusiasm has largely been matched by substantive advances in omnichannel merchant adoption. And the platforms, innovations and security capabilities are likely to grow, the survey reports.

According to 451 Research data cited in the report, 76 percent of Americans report to have purchased goods or services on their cellphone through a mobile web browser; only 48 percent had done so through an app. However, 69 percent said they had used reward program apps to collect points and 44 percent had used a retail-brand mobile app to pay for goods in-store. With recent news like Starbucks announcing that 30 percent of all transactions were conducted via the coffee giant’s mobile app, and with ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft growing in ubiquity, the report says, utilization of these channels is likely to expand substantially.

Consequently, on the merchant side the survey found that “a noted focus on mobile in-store strategies has become apparent.” According to the report, 46 percent of merchants now offer mobile coupons and 44 percent have added mobile capabilities to their rewards programs. Further, of the nearly half of merchants that have developed a branded customer-facing mobile app, 86 percent allow shoppers to make purchases from within it.

Perhaps one of the most significant findings of the survey was that 80 percent of the merchant respondents said that they accepted NFC-based mobile wallets or planned to within 6-12 months, nearly matching the 84 percent who indicated the same for e-commerce websites. Further, merchants primarily cited consumer demand and improved consumer perception as reasons to increase NFC-based payment acceptance. On the consumer side, however, where 76 percent had purchased goods through a mobile website, only 28 percent said that had used a mobile wallet at the POS.

The report concluded that increased consumer demand for secure, fast and forward POS payments experiences at the tip of their fingers, coupled with the apparent interest for merchants to expand mobile-capable infrastructure, will mean that “mobile is unequivocally poised to earn a growing share of [all] commerce.”

The survey — commissioned by Discover Global Network — surveyed a web-panel comprised of 200 US business respondents and a representative sample of approximately 1,000 U.S. adult consumers. The full report can be found here.