Category: Mobile Payments

According to a recent report, consumers like using quick response (QR) codes to make in store purchases.

The latest study form Nielsen found that consumers who use their smartphones to make purchases in physical stores, prefer to make mobile payments that involve QR codes, and that 45% of the 3,784 respondents said that they use this particular system to check out with their mobile phone.

40% of consumers surveyed use mobile apps as their preferred way to pay for merchandise.

The over 3,700 survey participants were made up of individuals who were 18 years of age or older and who had used their mobile device (tablet or smartphone) for banking, shopping, or paying within 30 days of the survey taking place. The income of users who carried out mobile payments varied extensively. For instance, the report found that the highest usage occurred among consumers who made over $100,000 and less than $50,000.

According to Nielsen’s analysis, “Digital is starting to transform how consumers pony up cash for their everyday purchases.” It added that “for consumers using mobile payment technology, digital is already the norm.”

In addition to QR codes, other digital payment methods that were popular among mobile users included NFC (near field communication), such as Isis and Google Wallet, and using a mobile phone scanner to scan a code.

QR codes make mobile transactions easy for cashiers and customers.

The quick response code mobile payment method is easy for both the cashier and the consumer because all the cashier has to do is scan the QR code on the consumer’s phone just as they would any bar code. Once scanned, the payment is processed and completed.

When these cubed-shaped codes first became trendy, they were popping up on everything, everywhere, from product packages and brochures to museums and restaurants. However, these codes, which have the ability to store a considerable amount of digital data, have been losing ground and some people feel that they have become irrelevant. That being said, considering the responses Nielsen received for its study, it’s clear that when it comes to the realm of mobile payments, QR codes are well liked by consumers.

A recent study suggests the launch of a new UK payments service has pushed the nation into the top m-payments market spot, worldwide.

After comparing international mobile payments markets, a UK Payments Council research paper claims that the United Kingdom is the m-payments market leader and that the country’s success is related to the P2P Paym service, which was launched this past April by the Payment’s Council.

The report compared the person-to-person (P2P) mobile payment services of several countries.

Aside from the UK, the countries that were studied and compared included the US, Japan, Sweden, India and Kenya. The report compared a variety of aspects, some of which included infrastructure, ownership, the mobile banking experiences of customers, and speed.

Adrian Kamellard, the Payment Council’s chief executive said about the report that “Looking round the world makes it clear that Paym is a world leading service, even when compared with trailblazers such as M-Pesa in Africa. The UK payments industry’s collaborative model of change, which builds upon our existing world class real-time payments infrastructure has delivered real benefits for customers.” Kamellard added that unlike other parts of the world, Paym is a free service for customers “at the point of use.”

He went on to say that mobile technology has altered human behavior around the world and that this has transformed the way that people carry out many of their important daily tasks. He added that it is interesting to observe how technological, cultural and local regulatory differences affect how a new mobile payments solution is applied.

Paym is the only mobile payments service in the world that is industry-wide to use P2P.

In addition to this finding, the Payment’s Council report also claimed it found that the US and Japan are behind Sweden and the UK when it comes to delivering P2P m-payment services. It also said that it is a struggle for India to make its service as universal is it is in Sweden and the UK due to the country’s geographic and demographic disparity. In addition, it noted that Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile payments service has increased the nation’s inclusion and financial capability, which previously had an infrastructure lacking in payments and banking.