More small business owners are getting into the mobile payment game. Recent research found 34 percent of small businesses now accept mobile payments. This is a sizable increase from 2015 when just 13 percent accepted mobile at the point of sale.
These predictions coincide with a recent eMarketer study, which forecasts mobile payment usage will climb to just shy of 70 million consumers over the next three years. The study further predicts mobile payment transactions will account for an average annual spend of $3,017 per mobile user by 2019.
Small businesses offering consumers the option to pay by phone are well positioned to meet consumers’ increasing usage of this technology. Additionally, these businesses are able to:
- Increase consumer convenience — Ease of use and faster checkout times make mobile payments a convenient option for consumers.
- Provide increased security — Tokenization eliminates the need for merchants to store credit card data, as tokenization exchanges vulnerable payment data for a unique code.
- Accept “on the go” payments — Small business owners can take their products on the road to trade shows and kiosks, for example, to meet consumers where they are.
