Mobile spenders boost online spending to £133bn

The global mobile payments industry is set to be worth $3.39 trillion by 2022, with a projected growth of 33.4% from 2016 to 2022, according to Allied Market Research.

Mobile spending picked up tremendous momentum in 2016. The use of mobile payment apps such as Apple Pay have given consumers trust and security for protecting their information and making fuss-free purchases from their mobile device.

Smartphone shoppers boosted online spending to hit a record high in the UK last year, resulting of £133bn being spent in 2016.

Not only has there been significance movement in making purchases on mobile devices, but tap-and-go spending with mobiles and devices have also seen a dramatic surge.

The increase of tap-and-go spending resulted in a record-breaking month in November last year, with statistics showing £2.9 billion spent using the technology. This marks an increase of 184% year-on-year when contactless spending first hit £1 billion in a single month.

The increase may be directly associated with the increase of smartphone shopping. The introduction of phones with larger screens has allowed users to easily browse websites, with better HD quality, such as iPhone 7 and Samsung’s Galaxy 7.

Business Wire reported from Davos that in-app spending will increase tremendously. Global consumer spending on mobile apps is set to reach $74 billion by 2020, up from $54 billion in 2016. Africa, the Middle East and Latin America will be the fastest-growing regions for mobile app spend. There were also more than 120 million active mobile money accounts in emerging markets in 2016. The number of addressable smartphones for device based payment services will increase from 2.7 billion in 2016 to more than five billion by 2020.

And it makes sense. With contactless now making up to a fifth of all consumer spending, mobile wallets will increase to lead the way in transitioning traditional payments and financial services to a more digitally enhanced method.

Related reading