Consumers in the U.K. have caught onto the mobile payment method — in a big way.
Worldpay, an international payments company released data regarding the dramatic rise of mobile payments by consumers in the U.K. over the first half of the year. According to Worldpay’s research, mobile contactless transactions topped £370 million during the period, marking a 336 percent year-over-year increase.
“Mobile spending has shaken off the novelty tag, and is breaking its own spending records virtually every month,” said Jake Frost, U.K. chief marketing officer at Worldpay. “Granted there’s still some way to go before we start cutting up our cards and chucking away our wallets, but it’s easy to see why everyone — from start-ups to tech giants — is eager to have a stake in the technology.”
Related Galleries
Sparked by the availability of Apple Pay in 2015, further punctuated by the release of Android Pay a year later and the Samsung version this year, U.K. consumers have graduated from the early adoption phase and moved into commonplace acceptance of the technology.
“Monthly spending on mobile devices has risen by 57 percent in the past six months (£46 million spent using mobiles in January 2017, compared to £74 million in June 2017), while mobile’s share overall in-store transactions has risen from 1.18 percent at the end of 2016 to 2.04 percent in June 2017,” a Worldpay spokesman said.
The research concluded that supermarkets and grocery stores garnered the highest use of mobile payments — securing for 55 percent of total spend so far this year.
“We’re now seeing pockets of incredible growth in mobile adoption right across the country with the South East of England accounting for 15 percent of total spend and the Northwest making up 10 percent,” said Frost. “Mobile is already emerging as the dominant payment channel for e-commerce. It’s very difficult to argue against it doing the same for in-store payments and at a far faster rate than many would imagine.”
More from WWD:
Consumer Confidence Increases Across Markets
Millennials Drive Up Luxury Accessory Sell-Outs
Salesforce Q2 Shopping Index Marks Mobile Traffic Share Rise