Australian Businesses Slow To Adopt Mobile Payments Despite Strong Demand

Australian consumers are already using their mobile devices to make payments on a regular basis. But a large number Australian businesses aren’t even ready to accept mobile payments. Read on to find out more.

I went to Oz Comic-Con this year and spent a lot of money. It was easy to do so because pretty much every merchant that set up shop there accepted either Eftpos or payments made through mobile devices that they carried with them. They even directed me to their online stores and I promptly perused more of their merchandise on my smartphone. I remember even just a few years ago, most stalls at conventions were cash-only and it really shows how mobile payments have matured.

According to the PayPal mCommerce Index, which measures the state of mobile commerce, 71% of Australian consumers already use their mobile devices to make payments but only 49 per cent of businesses are optimised to accept mobile payments. Nearly one-third of businesses said they have no plans to cater for mobile transactions. Just over a quarter of online businesses don’t make any sales through mobile devices.

“Australia has one of the highest levels of mobile penetration globally with 80% of the Australian population owning a smartphone, so I was surprised to discover the low level of business readiness to accept sales effectively via mobile devices,” PayPal Australia managing director Libby Roy said.
“The mobile payments landscape is fast-evolving and the Index reveals how habituated Australian consumers have become to mobile shopping with more than a third of us making mobile payments at least once a week — a figure that jumps to 47% for the under 35s.

“So although online businesses may think they don’t need to optimise for mobile now, they will have to if they want to stay competitive in the near future.”

You can read the full PayPal mCommerce Index report


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