Category: Mobile Payments

Airlines see a mere 13% of volume on mobile devices according to new report.

A recent report from Netherlands-based global multichannel payment company Adyen revealed that travel made up 15.5% of mobile transactions on its global payments network in Q1 2016. While m-payments made up 32% of overall online payments in this year’s first quarter, in the travel sector, the share plummets to 15%. According to Adyen, these findings show that there is opportunity to extend the reach of smartphones and tablets in the travel industry.

Compared to other industries, the travel sector sees significantly fewer mobile transactions.

The report – Mobile Payments Index 2016: Travel Edition – shows that while accommodation services see 17% of volume on mobile devices, airlines see only 13%. Also, tablets are the preferred choice among mobile devices when it comes to booking in the travel industry.

President of North America at Adyen, Kamran Zaki, stated that the travel sector is seeing notably fewer browser-based payments happen on mobile compared to other industries. Zaki added that “an average of only 15 percent of online payments take place on a mobile device, compared to over 30 percent across all verticals” among airline and accommodation merchants on the Adyen platform.

However, airlines investing in mobile offerings are seeing higher m-payments activity.

Even though only 13% of transactions for airlines are occurring on mobile, Adyen’s report also pointed out that the airlines investing in their mobile offerings are actually seeing higher than average activity in regard to mobile payments.

For instance, European airline Transavia has a share of mobile payments that is 65% higher than the average.

Adyen CCO Roelant Prins said “We are moving to a future where many loyal travel industry customers will make their entire journey in-app, from initial booking to final checkout, with payments as a key step in that journey.” He added that aside from in-app, travel merchants who invest in optimized experiences for web browsers across key types of devices are already seeing a significant increase in their mobile transaction volume.

Adyen believes that the travel industry has more opportunity to take a larger share of m-payments by branching into other mobile services like smartphone check-in among other convenient customer services.

ANZ has become the country’s first bank to support Apple’s mobile payment service.

Apple Pay, Apple’s digital wallet service, has made its way to Australia, with ANZ bank being the first in the country to support the mobile payments solution. According to Reuters, Apple Pay in Australia will be extended to ANZ customers, who will be able to register credit cards on their iPhones to pay for goods and services by swiping or waving the devices over contactless payment terminals. Via the Apple Pay service, Apple charges card providers for transactions.

ANZ is confident that Apple Pay will be well received by their customers.

The deal with Apple was confirmed by the Australian bank on Thursday morning. In a statement, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliot said that the introduction of Apple’s digital wallet service is a major milestone in their strategy to utilize digital technology to offer their customers a superior experience “and will be a watershed moment in the adoption of mobile payments in Australia.”

Apparently, the demand for Apple Pay in Australia has been huge from ANZ customers. Elliott said that the bank is confident that the security, privacy and convenience of the service will be well received by their clients.

Elliott added that “With the high adoption rates of contactless payments in Australia, our customers will be world leaders in their ability to use their mobiles to make the vast bulk of essential payments.”

Apple Pay in Australia will no doubt boost the country’s adoption of contactless payments.

Currently, over 60% of all card transactions in the nation are contactless, a far higher percentage compared to the United States.

However, digital technology, like Apple’s mobile transactions solution, is making progress in the financial industry. This has prompted traditional Australian banks like ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and National Australia Bank to improve their digital services.

In addition to launching Apple Pay in Australia, Apple has introduced the service to other countries where banks were reluctant to get on board, such as the United States and Britain. It has also launched its mobile payments service in China and, most recently, in Singapore.