Tag: barclays

Visa to expand its mobile payments service to the UK

| May 7, 2015

Visa will be launching its mobile payments platform in the UK in June of this year

Visa has announced that it will be expanding its mobile payments service in Europe. Visa Europe has formed numerous partnerships with retailers and merchants in the United Kingdom, where mobile payments are beginning to gain momentum. The company has also formed partnerships with British banks in order to better compete with other mobile payment platforms that have launched in the country. Visa plans to launch its expanded service in the United Kingdom in June of this year, with 60,000 people being able to use the service at that time.

Digital wallet helps make payments more convenient

Visa’s mobile payments platform, which serves as a digital wallet, was initially launched in 2013. The platform allows users to make purchases online without having to provide their financial information more than once. One of the attractive features of the platform its use of digital tokens, which are used in place of financial information, making mobile transactions more secure. Visa suggests that its platform is more convenient than others, as it can save consumers time when making a purchase online.

Mobile spending is on the rise in the United Kingdom

UK Mobile Payments - VisaAccording to a recent report from Barclays, consumers in the United Kingdom are expected to spend more than $60 billion a year using their smartphones and tablets by 2024. Last year, British consumers spent a combined $10 billion from their mobile devices. Mobile payments are becoming a more attractive option to consumers in the UK, largely due to how convenient nature of mobile commerce and the services that are being offered by numerous companies participating in this space.

Security concerns lead to better protection for consumers

Though mobile payments are becoming more popular, there are security concerns that could slow its growth and adoption. Visa has been working to address these security concerns, using tokenization as a way to protect consumers and their financial information. Biometric technology, such as fingerprint scanners are also becoming more important in the mobile space, as this technology can be used to provide more protection to the mobile commerce space.

Scottish mobile commerce to grow by 224% through 2019

| April 17, 2015

Barclays research predicts growth in the Scottish mobile market

The Scottish mobile commerce market is expected to experience strong growth through 2019, according to research from Barclays. More consumers in the country are beginning to use their mobile devices to browse for products on the Internet. The demand for in-store support of mobile payments is also on the rise, as many people use their devices in stores to research products they are interested in purchasing. Over the next few years, the Scottish mobile commerce space is expected to grow by 224%.

Scottish consumers are spending more money through their mobile devices

The research from Barclays predicts that Scottish consumers will spend approximately $2.6 billion in the mobile commerce space ever year through 2019. Despite this growth in mobile spending, retailers in the country are not showing much interest in catering to mobile consumers. Some retailers see little need to purchase and install mobile point-of-sale systems, as mobile shoppers tend to prefer purchasing products over the Internet rather than in physical stores. The problem, however, is that retailers are also not eager to build mobile websites, which can support these shoppers more effectively.

Consumers are becoming starved for time

Mobile Commerce - ScotlandApproximately 45% of Scottish consumers use their mobile devices to browse for products on the Internet, with the most popular category of products among these consumers being clothing. Barclays suggests that one of the reasons more consumers are embracing mobile commerce is because they are becoming starved for time. Schedules are becoming more packed and consumers have less time to visit physical stores, but mobile devices allow them to do their shopping whenever they want to. This convenience has become one of the major attractors of the mobile commerce space.

Scottish companies are not ready for the mobile space

Retailers need to adapt to the changes being seen in the market in order to continue finding success. Approximately less than 3% of Scottish retailers are prepared to serve mobile consumers, with 70% lacking the mobile websites that can appeal to these consumers. Another 68% of retailers claimed that they do not have a clear plan to engage the mobile market.