BIRMINGHAM: Almost half (47%) of mobile phone users in the UK would like to use their device to pay for goods and services, which equates to more than 23m people being interested in making mobile payments, a new survey has revealed.
According to the results of a poll of 1,000 UK adults by Oxygen8, the integrated mobile solutions provider, 5.3m people in the UK (11%) would stop using their credit and debit cards if they could pay with their mobile phone.
A further 17.9m people (36%) would like to use both cards and mobile phones as payment options. Taken together, the report said this meant 23m Britons would be interested in using their mobile device "to purchase anything, anywhere".
Using a mobile phone to purchase a product from eBay was the most popular transaction carried out by 25% of respondents, while 14% used their mobile device to pay bills.
The purchase of clothes and groceries via an app was conducted by 10% and 9% respectively, although women and young people aged 25 to 34 were the most active for buying clothes while men were twice as likely to buy groceries via an app.
British men were also much more likely to buy a coffee via an app because they made up 70% of the 1.54m UK consumers who used the Starbucks app.
With so many mobile users in the UK already accustomed to using their devices to buy goods and services, they are likely to respond well to the convenience mobile offers, according to Kevin Dawson, head of payments at Oxygen8.
"Not only will mobile payments provide a new and simplistic opportunity for consumers, the planned groundbreaking developments will open up new payments opportunities for companies wanting to make their own products and services more accessible to their customers," he told Retail Times.
Euromonitor International, the research firm, predicted earlier this year that the increasing sophistication of mobile banking apps and their rapid uptake by consumers could soon take mobile payments mainstream.
It estimated that UK consumers, on a per capita basis, will spend $824 via mobile payments in 2014, with almost 80% coming from purchases made on tablets.
According to the results of a poll of 1,000 UK adults by Oxygen8, the integrated mobile solutions provider, 5.3m people in the UK (11%) would stop using their credit and debit cards if they could pay with their mobile phone.
A further 17.9m people (36%) would like to use both cards and mobile phones as payment options. Taken together, the report said this meant 23m Britons would be interested in using their mobile device "to purchase anything, anywhere".
Using a mobile phone to purchase a product from eBay was the most popular transaction carried out by 25% of respondents, while 14% used their mobile device to pay bills.
The purchase of clothes and groceries via an app was conducted by 10% and 9% respectively, although women and young people aged 25 to 34 were the most active for buying clothes while men were twice as likely to buy groceries via an app.
British men were also much more likely to buy a coffee via an app because they made up 70% of the 1.54m UK consumers who used the Starbucks app.
With so many mobile users in the UK already accustomed to using their devices to buy goods and services, they are likely to respond well to the convenience mobile offers, according to Kevin Dawson, head of payments at Oxygen8.
"Not only will mobile payments provide a new and simplistic opportunity for consumers, the planned groundbreaking developments will open up new payments opportunities for companies wanting to make their own products and services more accessible to their customers," he told Retail Times.
Euromonitor International, the research firm, predicted earlier this year that the increasing sophistication of mobile banking apps and their rapid uptake by consumers could soon take mobile payments mainstream.
It estimated that UK consumers, on a per capita basis, will spend $824 via mobile payments in 2014, with almost 80% coming from purchases made on tablets.
Data sourced from Oxygen8, Retail Times, Euromonitor; additional content by Warc staff
