Category: Mobile Payments

House Energy & Commerce Committee is looking into concerns regarding mobile payments security

Mobile payments will reach a new high this year in the United States, powering by the growing adoption of new payment services that allow consumers to shop online more conveniently. According to recent reports from CNET and Juniper Research, some two-thirds of adults in the country now own a smartphone, with approximately 36 million people expected to make a mobile transaction this year. This information was presented to a hearing of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has been expressing concerns regarding mobile payments fraud.

Security continues to be a significant problem in the mobile space

Security in the mobile payments field has been a point of concern for federal officials for some time. Many consumers have become the victims of fraud in the past, following high-profile data breaches that targeted some of the country’s largest retailers. The hearing found that while most mobile payments solutions are, indeed, quite secure, they do not have the same legal and legislative protections that more conventional payment solutions enjoy.

Committee will not yet be taking legislative action on mobile security

The House Energy & Commerce Committee has noted that the hearing was a preliminary hearing concerning mobile payments security. The committee has not yet announced plans concerning what can be done to improve security. As such, there will be no legislative action taken on issues regarding security for the time being. The committee is seeking more information from stakeholders in the mobile payments space. This information could be used to improve the overall mobile payments space, ensuring that consumer information is well protected in the future.

Ensuring the security of consumer information remains a top priority in the mobile space

The mobile payments space is still relatively new. While many of the organizations participating in this space have extensive experience regarding commerce, they are finding the mobile space to be exposed to significant risks that they are still attempting to adapt to. More regulatory oversight may be needed to ensure consumer protection, but the federal government must collect more data before taking any significant legislative action on the matter.

According to the results of a recent study, more people mobile shopped over the holiday weekend than ever.

According to a recent study from the National Retail Federation, there were more people who used m-commerce over the Thanksgiving and Black Friday long weekend than has been the case in any previous year.

The online survey showed that online retail saw a considerable online shopping spike, particularly over mobile.

The research took into consideration the shopping habits of over 151 million people who said that they had shopped in stores, online or over m-commerce over that weekend launching the holiday shopping season. Many retailers took care to offer the same deals over their websites that they had to offer in store, allowing consumers to be able to make the purchases they wanted without having to wait in line in the actual shops. The survey itself was conducted on behalf of the federation by Prosper Insight & Analytics. It indicated that approximately 102 million people had said they shopped in store on the Thanksgiving weekend.

That said, even more – 103 million people – said they shopped online and over m-commerce channels.

The survey also showed that even by the close of the weekend, there were still 121 million people who had intended to shop online and over mobile commerce on Cyber Monday. While this is a significant number, it should be pointed out that it is actually a reduction when compared to the 126.9 million people that had intended to shop on Cyber Monday after having done so over the Thanksgiving and Black Friday long weekend.

According to figures reported by the Wall Street Journal, this year, consumers spent an estimated $4.45 billion over online and mobile commerce channels on Thursday and Friday, alone. Black Friday sales increased by 14 percent when compared to the figures from 2014, according to the data shared by Adobe Systems, Inc. That online and m-commerce figure is based on purchases made in about 4,500 locations across the United States. Adobe’s estimates were also that over half of online shopping occurred over smartphones, further underscoring the importance of mobile devices for retail shopping.