Last year when Loyalty360 spoke with Jeppe Dorff, president of suretap, he said that Canadian consumers were seeking a greater customer experience with mobile digital wallets.
A new global study from GfK, however, says that Canadians rank high when it comes to the use of mobile devices for in-store shopping, while lagging when it comes to mobile payments.
While the research shows that Canadian shoppers are among the global leaders in using mobile devices during trips to brick-and-mortar retail stores, in-store mobile payments account for just 2 percent of all their transactions.
When asked where they last used a smartphone or tablet to help them shop, 38 percent of Canadian shoppers answered “in a store” – one of the highest levels among the 20 countries measured. Only the United Kingdom (40 percent) and India (42 percent) recorded greater in-store use of a mobile device. The comparable figure for China was 30 percent.
According to the study, Canadians are prolific users of the contactless payment feature offered by many credit and debit cards and POS systems. Contactless transactions account for 27 percent all payments in Canada – nearly double the global average of 15 percent.
Some of the reasons behind Canadians’ low involvement with mobile digital wallets center on skepticism, the study noted.
Nearly half (45 percent) of Canadian shoppers agree that “mobile payments are more of a gimmick today than a major part of how I pay,” the study shows, and more than half (57 percent) say, “I am worried about my personal information when using a mobile payment app.”
“Canadian shoppers feel comfortable using their mobile devices for a variety of shopping activities – learning about products, checking availability, and reading reviews,” said Stephen Popiel, Vice President at GfK Canada. “But mobile payments still represent a small minority of purchases. With the prevalence of contactless debit and credit usage, consumers are already getting a lot of the convenience out of the mobile wallet. Financial institutions and merchants will need to create a more compelling value proposition to give mobile payments a shot at their breakthrough moment.”
Loyalty cards are the most requested application of mobile wallet passes according to a 2016 study that surveyed 2,000 consumers in the U.S. and the U.K. In fact, 67 percent of consumers want to use a mobile wallet to track loyalty benefits, ridding themselves of unnecessary cards and taking advantage of added mobile convenience.
Loyalty360 will host a webinar on Dec. 14, 2016, titled, Using Mobile Wallet to Drive Loyalty and Action: Today’s Opportunity for Brands, which will be presented by Urban Airship. During the webinar, Urban Airship officials will review results of The State of Mobile Wallet Marketing survey and discuss what the findings mean for brands trying to keep their loyal followers engaged.