Tag: australia mobile payments

According to the results of a recent analysis, businesses in Australia aren’t keeping up with consumer device use.

PayPal Australia released a report that said Australian mobile commerce is lacking. It stated that businesses simply aren’t keeping up with the way consumers are using their smartphones. This includes many of the different ways in which consumers regularly use their devices.

Mobile device uses analyzed by PayPal for the report included everything from researching a brand to mobile payments.

PayPal released its Australian mobile commerce report as a part of its first ever mCommerce Index. This report will be issued biannually. It will look into the trends in smartphone based shopping and payments within the country.

Among the central report findings was that even though 71 percent of consumers in Australia are using their smartphones to make payments, only 49 percent of companies have mobile optimized.

According to the report, all businesses in the country could benefit from mobile commerce optimization.

Libby Roy, the managing director at PayPal Australia, explained that each business has its own mobile commerce level needs. However, Roy also underscored the fact that all businesses are able to benefit from it in one way or another. “What’s clear is that there are a lot of consumers that are very comfortable using mobile, and businesses need to get on board.”

Roy explained that everything from having an app to simply having a social media presence is important. It is up to businesses to understand the ways in which they can benefit their customers through mobile commerce. This simultaneously allows them to determine how they can grow their own success.

The report indicated that one in three Australians were making weekly mobile payments. One in ten Australians spend over $1,000 per month using smartphone based transactions. On average Australians are using their mobile devices to make $330 in purchases on a monthly basis. And yet, Australian mobile commerce offerings are not keeping up with that consumer shopping trend. What makes the mobile shopping trend a challenge to measure is that consumers use mobile and non-mobile business interactions in combinations with each other before completing a final transaction.

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.