A new report by Juniper Research forecasts that the gross merchandise transaction value of mobile payments for physical goods will exceed $170 billion worldwide by 2015. This is nearly treble the $60 billion forecast for 2011.

Juniper Research found that initial growth had been fueled by a dramatic upsurge in retail apps in the wake of the consumer smartphone explosion. However, there was an increasing industry awareness of the need to enable an integrated shopping experience within the wider context of a fast expanding ecommerce market, thus enabling seamless access to retail sites across multiple devices.

Senior Analyst David Snow says, “Our research for this report underlined the importance of mobile as an extra channel to market, but Juniper believes that mobile campaigns must be tightly linked to print, online, and store-based campaigns to ensure consistency of customer experience. Increasingly people will browse on one device such as a PC and then buy from another such as a smartphone.”

However, the Juniper report also advises that vendors need to innovate unceasingly as the market develops and becomes more competitive.

Further findings from the mobile payments report:

•    The market will gain further momentum in the medium term following the increasing deployment of point-of-sale solutions to facilitate in-store cashless transactions.

•    Retailers have observed a marked uplift in average transaction value when cash is replaced by a mobile payment method.

 

 

http://www.juniperresearch.com/viewpressrelease.php?pr=262