Mobile payment spikes in popularity amongst Europeans

The number of consumers regularly using a mobile device to make payments has tripled in the past year, according to Visa’s 2016 Digital Payments Study.

Currently, 54% of consumers surveyed said they regularly use a mobile device – be it a smartphone, tablet or wearable – to make payments for a range of activities, compared to just 18% when the same study was conducted last year.

The study surveyed more than 36,000 online consumers in 19 European countries.

The results reveal a dramatic shift in consumers’ adoption of digital payments in the last 12 months. One year ago, 38% of the people surveyed said they had never used a mobile device to make payments and had no plans to do so, whereas today, that number has dropped to 12%.

The study also found that mobile payments are most prevalent in developing markets such as Turkey and Romania, and developed markets, particularly the Nordics. 

According to Visa, mobile payments users also said that they are as comfortable making more expensive purchases on mobile devices as they are with everyday payments.

The research also showed that mobile banking activity is increasing across all age groups, with more than half of European respondents in all age brackets using mobile banking. Millennials remained the most prolific category, but the rate of 55-64-year-olds who used this form of payment grew by 33%. In this regard, the rate of millennials, aged 18-34, have a growth rate of 24%.

This increase in engagement with digital payments coincides with greater adoption of contactless technology. Across all age groups, contactless payments are now the norm, the research indicated.

It also highlighted the correlation between contactless usage and new payment methods, revealing that contactless card users are more interested in using a mobile device as a payment method in a shop, shopping via a retailer app  or using a mobile device to pay for a meal.