Mobile payments growth spurt

by: Brian Day

Mobile payments in the U.S. are set to nearly triple, expected to total $142 billion in five years, according to Forrester research. That’s up from $52 billion in mobile payment spending in 2014. Specifically, in-person mobile payments are anticipated to grow faster than peer-to-peer transfers and remote payments, reaching $34 billion in five years at a compounded annual growth rate of 56 percent.

Forrester attributes the expected growth of in-person mobile payments to new digital wallet offerings, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and the outcroppings of Android Pay’s API.

Of course, this amounts to a drop in the bucket when compared with total U.S. consumer spending, which is forecast to reach $16 trillion by 2019. Nevertheless, consumers’ increasing reliance on and expectation of deliverables from their digital devices are leading to continued opportunities for significant mobile growth. Forrester concludes 66 percent of U.S. consumers now own smartphones, up from just 19 percent in 2009.

Further, a new Juniper Research report indicates more than 2 billion people will complete a mobile transaction via their smartphone or tablet by the end of 2017.

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