PayPal says a study it commissioned last month refutes those who say mobile wallet adoption is lagging.
In a survey of consumers in the U.S., Britain, Canada, Germany and Australia, 83% of respondents said they wished they didn't have to carry physical wallets.
Anuj Nayar, PayPal's senior director of communications, says the point of the study is not about replacing cash or credit cards with a "mobile wallet" payment method.
"It's about eliminating (payment) friction points that stop you from
getting what you want," Nayar said. "Consumers aren't looking for new
ways to pay in stores. But they are looking to have technology solve
real world problems such as standing in line to order, tracking receipts
and managing things like loyalty and gift cards."
The study from eBay -owned PayPal found 29% of U.S. respondents said they'd elect to carry a payments-enabled smartphone, or mobile wallet, over a physical wallet if they had to choose just one.
Nayar points to many pluses with a mobile wallet. For one, "you can pre-order your lunch from a meeting and not have to wait in line."
Many Stores Not Ready
But some obstacles to mobile wallet adoption surfaced in the PayPal study. Two-thirds of U.S. consumers said they had been unable to pay for a purchase at a store at least once because they forgot their wallets, with 30% saying this has happened to them often. PayPal says this shows many businesses still don't offer customers a mobile wallet payment alternative.
But the study found mobile wallets becoming more attractive because of changing lifestyles, such as greater use of smartphones.
Gyms and health clubs were at the top of the list of places that respondents wished were wallet-free. Canadians were most interested in going wallet-less at bars. Germans and Americans were most keen on attending concerts and sports events sans wallets.
Laundromats, grocery stores and restaurants also were high on mobile-wallet-option wish lists.
Mobile-wallet technology has a ways to go, however.
Mobile wallets, for now, can't do in an "easily accessible way" all the things that regular wallets do for consumers, says Ginger Schmeltzer, senior vice president of emerging payments for financial services and tech provider Fiserv.
Besides carrying credit cards, debit cards and cash, physical wallets also hold important personal identification and other items that digital wallets generally don't.
Schmeltzer says the day may come when most personal items can be loaded on smartphones and people don't carry any physical wallet, just their phone.
"People are ready to try something that will dematerialize the size of their physical wallet," said Sylvain Maquet, a partner in the New York office of Greenwich Consulting, who follows this field.
PayPal's Nayar notes that mobile wallet use tends to be identified with smartphones, but he stresses that any Internet-enabled device can serve as a digital wallet. This could include smartwatches and other wearable computers, or even cars that can pay for gas by passing through a gas station reader.
PayPal is pushing hard for mobile wallet payment services, as a way to boost its revenue.
Many PayPal Programs
The company launched Cash for Registers in May. The program, which it will phase in gradually, gives merchants an electronic point-of-sale service option, which lets them accept credit, debit cards, checks and PayPal payments.
Participating retailers can use PayPal Here or another checkout payment system offered by one of PayPal's partners such as Leaf, ShopKeep and VeriFone.
PayPal Here uses a dongle or swipe reader that lets merchants accept credit cards, checks and PayPal payments on the merchant's iPhone, iPad or Android device, so merchants can process payments anywhere, not just at the checkout counter.
PayPal says it will waive fees for merchants for the remainder of 2013 as an inducement to joining Cash for Registers.
PayPal also offers a cashless alternative called Check In, in which consumers can pay with just a few clicks and a picture of their face rather than a wallet.
Launched in May 2012, Check In is available at some stores. When users walk into a participating store, a mobile app on their smartphone alerts the store's PayPal Check In system that they're there. You buy what you want and when you go to the checkout register, the store's Check In system shows the register clerk a photo of your face that's been called up by the system. Once the clerk sees your face matches the photo, the funds to pay for your purchases are automatically deducted from your PayPal account and you take your goods home, never having to take out your wallet.
Consumers also will be able to use PayPal's Order Ahead service with their PayPal app in certain areas of the U.S. to pre-order and have their item waiting for them at a store, already paid for. Launched in January, Order Ahead is being tested at some Jamba Juice outlets. For quick service, users can touch an app on their smartphones to order ahead and say when they'll pick up the order, then have the transaction processed via PayPal before they get to the Jamba Juice outlet.
source: news.investors.com
