Rewarding Customers and Calming Security Concerns Key to Mobile Payments Adoption, Survey Finds

In a recent survey by Accenture, smartphone owners picked security as their top concern in adopting mobile payments, and showed interest in value-add features for mobile payments like coupons and rewards points.

Security concerns are the biggest barrier to mobile payments adoption among smartphone owners, according to a survey released last week by Accenture. More of the 4,002 smartphone owners surveyed (45%) cited security as their top reason for not using their mobile phone to make payments, a statement released last announcing the results of the survey said. The next biggest concerns, each chosen by 37% of the respondents, were privacy issues and the convenience of other payments types, such as cash, cards and checks.

In addition to these security concerns, the survey results suggest that consumers expect mobile payments solutions to do more than just enable payments. Among those surveyed that did use their smartphones to make payments, 60% said they were highly likely to use their phone to make payments if it tracked receipts, and 56 % said they were more likely to do so if the solution helped them manage their finances.

Those mobile payments users were also interested in a solution that could show a valid driver’s license on the smartphone (54%) or proof of insurance (56%).

More than half of the mobile payments users in the survey (60%) indicated that they would use their phone to pay more often if they were offered instant coupons by retailers to pay by phone, according to Accenture’s statement. If offered rewards points to use at the merchant, 51% of the respondents said they would pay with their phone more often. And 50% said they would do so if they were offered some form of preferential customer service or received coupons that were automatically stored on their phone.

Many of these same incentives would be interesting to those who aren’t already using mobile payments, the survey found. About one third of those surveyed said they would use mobile payments if the solution could track receipts or show proof of insurance. And 20% of the respondents said they’d be more likely to use mobile payments if they could get coupons for specific merchants saved on their smartphone.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio