Wirecard Offers Up Mobile Payments Insight and More

Knowing something about the overall retail landscape gives us an excellent idea of where mobile payments fits into it. That makes it a good thing that Wirecard recently dropped some information our way with a hefty new study, sending us a copy of its Consumer Insights Survey Data sheet that shows us what’s going on in retail, what customers are looking for, and how mobile payments is a part of it all.

The study led in with some major bombshells about the retail landscape: while 58 percent of respondents considered physical stores to be their “primary shopping channel,” there wasn’t a lot of loss generationally.

The biggest loss in the generation gap is younger shoppers, who prefer online and physical shopping in equal quantities, 46.15 percent in both cases. So while the older shoppers are more diehard physical store shoppers, the physical store doesn’t lose out to the young, at least, not much more than incrementally. Most are satisfied with the physical store—63 percent agree—and younger shoppers are even more satisfied at 73 percent for 18-24 year olds, the same people who prefer online just as much.

Mobile wallets are still lightly used in this study, with just one percent turning to them, while seven percent turned to cash. The clear majority was 87 percent turning to credit or debit cards.

It’s no wonder; mobile payments is considered the most exciting new technology by 26.65 percent of respondents, beating out the closest competitor, virtual reality, at 16.73 percent. What’s more, the 18-24s consider mobile payments the most exciting in just 19.23 percent of cases, which means mobile payments is a technology with farther-reaching appeal

That right there should have retailers scrambling for mobile payments technology. It’s exciting to a majority of respondents, and that across a wide range of demographics. Not having it in place, therefore, is missing out on a huge opportunity. Why not have a technology that a clear majority considers exciting? Especially a majority not just of the young, but the not-so-young too.

The Wirecard study brought no shortage of insights with it, and savvy retailers will take away plenty of points therein. At least, those retailers savvy enough to want to stay in business.