Will Accepting Contactless Mobile Payments Be Essential in the Future?

Payment technology has evolved drastically over the past decade, making it easier to pay for goods and services quickly and easily in various ways. While contactless card payments are still the most dominant form of digital payments, another payment method has begun to climb the rankings – contactless mobile payments.

But have we reached a point where businesses would be unwise not to accept contactless mobile payments?

Do the statistics surrounding this payment method suggest it will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the future? 

Let’s take a look.

If you’re unaware, contactless mobile payments work similarly to contactless card payments. The only difference is that you tap your smartphone instead of tapping a contactless credit or debit card on the card reader. 

Digital wallets are applications you can use to make contactless mobile payments by connecting them with your bank account – Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay are some of the most popular. 

When making a contactless mobile payment, you activate the relevant app with the digital wallet on your phone (many people choose to create shortcuts to activate these apps to make the transaction even faster) and place your phone over the card reader. The reader should then pick up your phone in the same way it would with a contactless card and charge the connected bank account for the goods and/or services.

In 2022, there were 782 million unique contactless mobile payment users worldwide, according to analyst house Juniper Research. 

However, the same research also quickly indicated that these numbers are expected to pass 1 billion by 2024. Given that only 8 billion people are on the planet and that many cannot make purchases due to environmental and economic reasons, contactless mobile payments – while still secondary to contactless card payments – will represent a massive share of the retail market.

In the same breath, it is important to note that there are also 2.8 billion mobile wallets currently in use worldwide, according to Statista, which suggests that either many of the above 1 billion people have more than one digital wallet or that many people using a digital wallet are yet to get on board with contactless mobile payments. 

Either way, the mere existence of these billions of digital wallets, along with the widespread use of smartphone technology, means virtually every shopper on the planet with a smartphone can make contactless mobile payments if they wish. As more people become open to the technology, we will likely see the rate of contactless mobile payments rise in line with the ever-growing population.

The number of people opting to use smartphones to pay in a retail setting is expected to rise by an impressive three million by 2026 in the UK, according to research from Statista. Suppose the same trend continues alongside the UK in other Western and technologically advanced countries. In that case, we can expect to see the number of contactless mobile payments rising year-on-year by multiple millions across the globe.

On top of this, by 2027, there are predicted to be around 8.4 billion contactless mobile payments in the United States alone, according to further data from Juniper Research. That’s a huge leap from the above numbers representing contactless mobile payment adoption in the next few months. If these figures are believed, businesses everywhere would be wise to begin accepting mobile contactless payments now, rather than waiting, to gain as much revenue as possible from this popular and growing payment method.

The technology used to accept contactless payments from credit and debit cards and mobile devices is virtually identical, so it is generally easy today to accept contactless mobile payments. Depending on the card machines a business is using, if they can accept contactless payments from cards, chances are they can also accept contactless mobile payments. 

All it would take is a quick call to their card machine provider to double-check the status of their machines. But even if upgrades were needed, card machines that can accept contactless mobile payments are widely available and affordable, meaning businesses almost anywhere can take advantage of the technology and open their goods and services up to this segment of their paying customers.

It may not be essential, as other forms of payment will still be on the table. Still, suppose you want to begin accepting contactless mobile payments in your business but don’t yet have the technology. In that case, you should align yourself with a reputable, experienced card machine provider. 

This is your best chance of properly utilizing the technology faster to reap the rewards as its popularity continues to flourish.