The global NFC retail payments market will exceed USD180 billion by 2017, more than a seven-fold increase over 2012, according to a new report (view press release). Conducted by Juniper Research, the report indicates that North America, Western Europe, the Far East and China will contribute 90% of this market value as smartphones with NFC payment technology become the norm.

The report suggests that 2011 was a big year for NFC payments, as major technology infrastructure standards for NFC payments were finalised, a number of mobile network operators committed to the market and NFC payment pilots from both mobile operators and financial institutions transitioned to commercial service.  In addition, NFC-enabled smartphone models were announced by almost all handset manufacturers, and Google ignited the market by launching its wallet in the US.

The report also revealed that more than 1 in 4 mobile users in the US and Western Europe will pay in-store using NFC by 2017. However, research also warned that the market acceleration of 2011 showed that some parts of the ecosystem were unprepared for the future. In particular, retailers are less convinced of the benefits of NFC payments over existing card technologies and are unwilling to invest in contactless infrastructure so soon after the transition to Chip&PIN.