What to Expect in 2019? Better Mobile Payment Options

Mcommerce has grown rapidly over the past few years, and all signs point to continued strong growth. We forecast that US smartphone retail mcommerce sales will grow nearly 38% in 2019, from $148.79 billion in 2018, reaching $205.15 billion. This will account for over three-quarters of US mcommerce sales.

As noted in the Mobile Trends 2019 report, a key driver has been improved payment options.

A big hassle in mobile buying in the past was entering payment information. No more. Apps and websites are integrating one-click buying options from Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal—and the 2017 expiration of Amazon’s one-click patent has opened the doors for numerous ecommerce platforms to offer their own one-click solutions.

“The pain of putting in your credit card details is gone for the most part,” said Michael Liu, director of mobile and innovation strategy at Carat USA.

These seamless payment platforms not only offer websites an easy way to convert, they’ve also increased the ability of social and media platforms to link directly to purchase pages or to convert directly. “You’ll start to see a lot more people purchasing on mobile next year just because of that integration and seamlessness between platforms,” Liu said.

The better payment options will also boost proximity mobile payments in stores, such as via Apple Pay or Square. Mobile payments within physical stores will increase 39.2% in 2019 to $86.71 billion. Most of that growth will occur as a result of existing mobile payment users spending more money via mobile wallets, rather than from an influx of new mobile payment users. In the US, only about 27.4% of smartphone users, or 61.6 million people, will make proximity mobile payments in 2019, a 12.0% increase over 2018.

Interested in other mobile trends to watch out for in 2019? eMarketer PRO subscribers can access the full Mobile Trends 2019 report here. Not sure if your company subscribes? Check here.