Mobile Payments Opportunity in UK Based on Analysis of Historical Data

Did you want to know the answers to certain burning questions?

• What is the correlation between non cash instruments and mobile payments?

• When people move from cash to credit cards and then debit cards, what is the roadmap to mobile payments?

We analyzed 107 months of card data in UK which has more than 300,000 data points.

Credit and debit card volume trends in UK

Source: Knowledgefaber Analytics

It has been estimated that the total mobile payment transaction value in the UK was $1.35 billion in 2014 and would rise steadily to $4.34 billion by 2018.

Source: Multiple survey results

Nearly half of Paym payments (49%) are made on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, with the most popular items purchased including food, cinema tickets and petrol. The Paym service is used most frequently during the hours of 6pm to 9pm in the evening.

Deloitte’s mobile consumer report, 2014 also shows that there is a possible correlation in the groceries sector, because 16% of users of mobile payments in UK plan to use it in grocery stores.

Only major sectors have been included, so the numbers do not add up to 100%.

Source: Knowledgefaber Analytics and Paym study

It is evident from the above charts that mobile payments is more appealing to affluent young users, who spend more time on entertainment & restaurants. Therefore, LTP believes that the shift from cards to mobile payments, which will be driven by young users, will be higher in the Entertainment and Food & restaurant sectors.

Percentage of monthly spending

Source: Bain Online survey

A Bain survey also shows that a mobile payment user conducts more transactions through credit cards as compared to an average user. This essentially means that when there will be a shift from cards to mobile payments, it will be reflected more in sectors where there are more credit card transactions.

Credit card transactions in UK by sectors (2014)