Category: Mobile Payments

Mobile payments continue to see strong growth throughout India, largely due to the availability of mobile wallets

India’s mobile commerce ecosystem is maturing at a rapid pace. In 2015, consumers throughout the country began realizing the benefits associated with mobile payments technology. The most notable benefit of this technology can be found in mobile wallets, which serve as digital versions of their physical counterparts. These wallets can be used to store a wealth of information, including financial details and special deals being offered by merchants. Mobile wallets have helped power the growth of the mobile payments space in India.

Mobile wallets have become quite popular with consumers

Currently, there are 12 mobile wallets available in India, coming from Paytm, MobiKwik, Oxigen, M-Pesa, and mRupee. Throughout India, some 125 million people use these mobile wallets, with Paytm accounting for the largest share of these consumers. Research and consultancy firm RNCOS recently released a study concerning the mobile wallet market in India. The study found that Indian consumers are quite interested in mobile payments, which has lead to a dramatic rise in the demand for digital wallets.

Mobile wallet market expected to reach $183 million by 2019

According to the study from RNCOS, India’s mobile wallet market currently stands at $53 million. The market is expected to reach $183 million by 2019. Several companies are beginning to provide mobile payments services to consumers. As more people gain access to smartphones and tablets, they are becoming more active in the mobile commerce space. This has created an incentive for retailers and other businesses to support mobile payments in order to effectively engage consumers that are becoming increasingly mobile-centric.

More consumers are gaining access to smartphones and bank accounts

Some 400 million new consumers will have smartphones and bank accounts in the near future, making India a very attractive mobile commerce market. Retailers and financial institutions are expected to take advantage of this by offering new services that appeal to the needs of consumers. Competition may ensure that innovation comes to the mobile payments market, allowing mobile wallets to become more capable than they are currently.

Gartner has predicted that by 2018, about 50 percent of shoppers will use wearables or smartphones to pay for purchases.

Research firm, Gartner Inc., has released a recent prediction that wearable technology will play a tremendously larger role in mobile payments over the next few years, saying that half of all consumers will be using them or smartphones for that purpose by the close of 2018.

This forecast has come at a time in which mobile payments are still only just gaining initial adoption.

In markets such as Japan, North America and many countries throughout Western Europe, mobile payments remain a small but growing transaction technology. Gartner feels that by 2018, they will have become popular enough that fifty percent of consumers will be using their smartphones or wearable technology devices in order to complete transactions at checkout counters in retail stores and restaurants.

This also suggests that Gartner feels that wearable technology will also be growing in its popularity.

According to Gartner principal research analyst, Amanda Sabia, “Innovation in apps, mobile devices and mobile services are impacting traditional business models, particularly in the way people use personal technology for productivity and pleasure.” Sabia also pointed out the importance that product managers come to understand who these shoppers actually are when it comes to catering to new devices and providing services, while discovering just how those gadgets are being used by those customers. “Knowing your customer is imperative in order to capture a fair share of spending opportunities in this dynamic marketplace.”

There were three types of mobile payments that were described by Gartner within its recent report. It identified them as: wearables or smartphone based payments, branded mobile wallets from credit card issuers or banks, or branded mobile wallets from retailers.

Still, Gartner reported that those mobile payments services based on NFC technology – such as Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay – will remain limited throughout the length of the forecast period simply because the partnerships between retailers and financial organizations for using smartphones and wearable technology in that way will not yet have been established. Moreover, consumers have yet to see the value in that type of payment transaction.