Hype Aside, Only 18% of Consumers Make a Mobile Payment at Least Once a Week

By Kevin Woodward

None can escape the notoriety of mobile payments, but most consumers apparently are able to ignore the allure of using the smart phone-based technology. Only 18% of consumers use their mobile phones to make at least one payment a week, finds the 2015 North America Consumer Digital Payments Survey released Tuesday by Accenture LLP, an Ireland-based consulting firm. In 2014, the figure was 17%.

The survey, which canvassed 4,000 smart-phone users in the United States and Canada, also found that of all mobile payments Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay is the preferred service, with 68% of consumers using it.

Still, credit and debit cards and cash continue to find favor among more consumers than mobile payment do. Debit cards are used at least daily or weekly by 59% of respondents and credit cards by 50%.

“Though it’s clear that consumers are aware that they can make payments through their phones, continued use of existing payment methods—such as credit cards and cash—and slow retail adoption of modern card readers have caused usage levels to remain stagnant over the last year,” said Robert Flynn, managing director for Accenture Payment Services in North America, in a press release.

Consumer preferences about where they make a mobile payment are shifting, however. The highest use—40%—is at quick-service restaurants, which is down from 45% in 2014. Grocery stores was the second most popular merchant type at 39%, down from 42% in 2014.

Growth in mobile payments use is growing among service businesses. This year, 27% of consumers said they made a mobile payment at telecom-services merchants compared with 23% in 2014. Similarly, 29% paid a household bill via mobile payment compared with 25% in 2014.

Rewards and other incentives could accelerate mobile-payments adoption, the survey finds. Fifty-four percent of non-users says they may or definitely would adopt mobile payments if a discount based on past usage was offered. Receiving a special offer of rewards points by using a rewards card stored on the phone would motivate 53% of non-users.

The Accenture survey also asked about peer-to-peer payments for the first time. Only 15% of consumers said they make a P2P mobile payment either daily or at least weekly. Forty percent said they never made such a transaction. Fourteen percent said they were not aware of mobile P2P payments.