The value of mobile commerce transactions conducted via mobile handsets and tablets is set to grow from $1.5 trillion this year to more than $3.2 trillion by 2017. According to a new report from Juniper Research, the mobile banking sector is leading the way, and will keep accounting for the lion’s share of transaction values over the next five years.
A number of key industries — including retail, airline and financial institutions — were emphasizing the importance of the mobile channel as an engagement, delivery and payment mechanism. Activities of Visa and MasterCard with regards to NFC certification and the airline industry’s wider eTicketing initiative represent key developments in this regard.
In addition, mobile wallet services have a major role in providing first time financial access in many emerging markets where the proportion of unbanked adults exceeded 50%. In the same markets, partnerships between OTT storefronts and network operators were enabling greater access to the digital economy.
However, Juniper’s report also noted that a number of hurdles still needed to be overcome if mCommerce were to achieve its potential in the coming years. For instance, there are still some retailers which haven’t optimized their sites for mobile, and the lengthy POS (Point Of Sale) infrastructure replacement lifecycles which is hampering NFC deployments in both the retail and transport sectors… As usual, all additional details are available from the full report.