PayPal Australia has revealed that Australians are shopping on their mobiles more than ever, but only half of Australian businesses are ready and optimised to accept mobile payments.
The PayPal mCommerce Index 2017 shows Australians are shopping on their mobiles more than ever with close to three-quarters (72 per cent) of respondents engaging in mobile shopping.
However, there remains a significant gap between the high mCommerce adoption by consumers and business readiness to accept mobile payments, with only 51 per cent of businesses currently optimised to accept mobile payments.
Despite this gap, online businesses have seen a 46 per cent year-on-year increase in the percentage of sales taken via mobile device (13 per cent in 2016 vs 19 per cent in 2017).
The Index shows almost half (48 per cent) of Australians who buy via mobile do so at least once a week (up from 36 per cent in 2016), and a quarter (25 per cent) of those surveyed now prefer smartphones over any other device for making online purchases—a jump of almost 40 per cent year-on-year (18 per cent in 2016).
PayPal Australia managing director Libby Roy said now is the time for Australian businesses to invest in their mobile offering.
“Over the past year we’ve seen Australian consumer frequency and preference for mobile purchases grow significantly. However despite almost three-quarters of Australian consumers transacting via mobile, 49 per cent of Australian online businesses are still not optimised for mobile payments.
“mCommerce is clearly not a fad, but a consumer behaviour change that’s here to stay. Australian businesses have work to do to bridge the gap between consumer expectations of mCommerce and their ability to offer a streamlined mobile shopping experience.”
When asked what was driving their adoption of mobile commerce, Australian consumers listed convenience and ease of use as the two main reasons for making a mobile payment or purchase, with 54 per cent of respondents stating that using a mobile device for shopping is convenient.
Of the Australian online businesses who are not mobile-optimised, 36 per cent believe their customers don’t want to buy via mobile and 37 per cent have no plans to optimise for mobile in the future.
This story was originally published by Appliance Retailer.
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