Mobile phones will be commonly used to pay for goods and services in five years time, according to a new study by PayPal.
The online payment firm’s ‘Money: The Digital Tipping Point’ report revealed that “2016 will be the year when UK shoppers will be able to use their mobile phones to pay for things on the high street with digital money rather than cash, cheques or cards “.
Nearly half of the UK’s 45 million mobile users already purchase something via their handset at least once every three months, the study suggested; and with more online retailers offering PayPal alongside credit cards and an increasing number of mobile devices featuring contactless payment technology, the trend of mobile spending is expected to grow significantly over the coming years.
PayPal said it expects to process more than $3.5 billion in mobile payment volume in 2011 – five times the amount it processed in 2010.
It claims UK mobile retail sales will hit £2.5 billion by 2016, with just over 14 million adults predicted to regularly shop via their smartphones .
Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK, commented: “We’ll see a huge change over the next few years in the way we shop and pay for things. By 2016, you’ll be able to leave your wallet at home and use your mobile as the 21st century digital wallet.”
“2016 will mark the real start of money’s digital switchover in the UK. We’re not saying cash will disappear entirely, but we’ll increasingly use our phones and other devices rather than our wallets to pay in-store as well as online.”
Scheible added that today’s children will become the UK’s first “cashless generation”, as it will be completely natural for them to pay for things by mobile.
