Mobile Payments ‘To Reach 125 Billion A Year’ By 2018

A study by analyst firm Juniper Research has predicted that that the number of annual purchases made via mobiles, tablets, desktops and other connected devices should reach 125 billion annually by 2018 – 60 percent more than the total number of transactions in 2015.

Juniper’s report, entitled Mobile & Online Purchases: Cards, Carrier Billing & Third Party Payment Platforms 2015-2020 also found that a major increase in Chinese usage of mobile payments will help boost the number of people using the technology.

Mobile payments

With nearly $450 billion (£285bn) in eRetail sales during 2014, the report noted that China had comfortably surpassed the US ($296 billion) to become the largest single market, with Japan, the UK and France completing the top five.

But the rise of ‘commuter commerce’, as customers make impulse purchases on their journeys to and from work, was also noted as a contributing factor to the growing amount of mobile payments.

This rise has been facilitated by the increasing improvements to 4G and LTE mobile networks across the world, giving users access to more reliable networks that can be used to make purchases on the go.

All clued up on mobile payments? Try our quiz!