Mobile payment to account for US$130 billion of retail by 2020 but cash, cards still dominant

Payments made through mobile handsets, which make use of Near Field Communications, will account for US$130 billion of worldwide consumer retail spending by 2020 but that will still be a small fraction of the global retail market, according to research study published by Boston-based Strategy Analytics.

“This equates to 254 million mobile users making five payments per month at an average of just below US$9 per transaction”, according to the press release issued by Strategy Analystics in mid-December.

Widespread acceptance of NCF by retailers is critical for the expansion of this method of payment, the organization said.

“Despite Strategy Analytics positive outlook for NFC-based mobile payments it will account for a single digit share of the multi-trillion dollar retail market globally by 2020, as traditional forms of payments  (cash and cards) remain dominant,” said David MacQueen, Executive Director, Media and Apps, according to the analysis.

“We don’t expect consumers to begin to leave their wallets behind until NFC POS becomes ubiquitous towards the end of the forecast period,” he added.

Even countries like Japan where NFC payment has been established longer, mobile still coexists with cards and cash, the report added.

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