Report highlights growth of mobile as point of purchase

Research conducted by London-based research agency Loudhouse has highlighted the growing appetite for mobile transactions among consumers, with 56 per cent of the Asia Pacific-based participants in the study having used a mobile phone to purchase goods or services.

Loudhouse surveyed 3288 people in the region across China, India, Japan and Australia as part of a global study on mobile sponsored by ERP software powerhouse SAP.

The new report revealed that out of the APAC segment of participants, 42 per cent hadn't used a mobile for purchase but wanted to. Only 2 per cent of consumers surveyed hadn't used a mobile for at least one purchase.

The most popular payment activity is paying bills; particularly telecommunications bills, but paying utility bills also rated highly. However, almost half – 49 per cent – of those who had made payments from their mobile device had bought clothing or footwear. Forty seven per cent had purchased books or ebooks and 45 per cent had bought groceries with their mobile.

The big driver of mobile purchasing? Convenience. The most popular reason for using mobile for purchases was being able to use it on the go, followed by general convenience, anytime purchasing, speed and ease of use.

The biggest challenges to mobile transactions were having to enter a lot of personal information to make a purchase and security, followed by intermittent Internet connectivity on phones.