Survey highlights the changing behavior of consumers that have become dependent on mobile technology
Deloitte, a leading professional services firm, has released a new survey highlighting mobile consumer behavior. The survey suggests that people in the United States are becoming increasingly obsessed with their mobile devices. Approximately 90% of consumers check their devices within the first hour of being awake and 23% look at their devices up to 50 times throughout the day. This growing dependence on mobile technology is spurring the evolution of commerce, making it more mobile-centric.
Growing awareness of mobile technology is making consumers more comfortable with shopping on their smartphones and tablets
The survey shows that people are becoming more informed about the price of mobile devices and data services offered by major carriers. As such, they are finding better deals and becoming more resistant to marketing campaigns that highlight unattractive service deals. Growing comfort with mobile devices is leading consumers to dabble in mobile commerce and payments. More people are shopping online from their mobile devices, opting to use their smartphones and tablets to purchase products from retailers.
In-store mobile payment support is lacking among retailers, despite strong interest in mobile commerce and mobile shopping
While consumers are showing interest in using their mobile devices to shop online, the survey shows that in-store mobile payment support is currently lacking. Many retailers are willing to support mobile shopping online, but will not do so in their physical stores. Introducing mobile payment system to physical stores can be a costly venture and some retailers are not yet convinced that mobile commerce is a worthwhile investment.
NFC technology continues to play a major role in the mobile commerce market and NFC-enabled devices are becoming more common
The survey shows that 31% of consumers with NFC-enabled mobile devices have used their device to make a payment in the past month. NFC technology currently makes up much of the backbone upon which mobile commerce is based. NFC-enabled devices have become quite common in the United States and have helped consumers become more involved in the mobile commerce space.
The new feature will allow users to authenticate a transaction with nothing more than their fingerprint. Transactions made in this way have a limit of $162 per day. If consumers want to spend more than that, they will have to enter in their account information manually as they typically do with Alipay. Financial information is used locally, without uploading any information to a third party. This ensures that the information being sent by a consumer is kept safe.