Brick and Mortar Retailers Take Advantage of Mobile but NFC Payments Low on Priority List

Boston, MA - March 19, 2013 - Strategy Analytics’ report “67 percent of Smartphone Owners Use Devices In-Store - Consumer and Retailer Mobile Needs Explored” examines the future of mobile commerce and highlights mobile connectivity as both a key challenge and opportunity for under pressure brick and mortar retailers. The mobile industry has focused on technologies such as NFC for payments, rather than creating a successful value proposition for consumer and retailers. Meanwhile, consumers are already using mobile technology in stores to find better deals elsewhere, locating competing retailers and comparing prices with online stores.

The results from the Strategy Analytics consumer survey,  conducted in the US, UK and China, showed that smartphone owners were much more likely than feature phone owners to use their devices either while shopping or for shopping. Usage at home demonstrates that smartphones are frequently used for research on products. Sixty one percent of smartphone owners use the device for shopping at home. Usage while out and about shows a very similar pattern to usage at home, although slightly more users overall have used their smartphone while out and about (67 percent compared to 61 percent). The least popular shopping activity on all devices is the actual point of purchase itself.

David MacQueen, Director of the Wireless Media Strategies research program, noted, “Brick and mortar retailers are not waiting for carriers or OEMs to roll out mobile payments and are leveraging mobile solutions already in the market, such as mobile advertising, couponing, loyalty cards and alternative payments, to drive footfall in stores, and convert that footfall into revenues.”

Nitesh Patel, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics added, “A lot of the mobile industry’s focus on mobile’s place in the retail environment has been around contactless payments enabled by NFC technology. The ramp up is extremely slow and even years from now we are expecting only a minority of consumers will use mobile payments; our Mobile Contactless Payments Forecast predicts 158M users, or 2.9 percent of total cellular users in 2017. This simply does not compare with the opportunity in the market today for the mobile industry to assist the ailing retail sector.”

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success. www.StrategyAnalytics.com