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Adoption of mobile payment shifts consumer spending patterns, habits
Paying for a cup of coffee with a smartphone instead of a credit card is gaining prominence among consumers – and is disrupting their spending patterns and consumption habits, according to new research co-written by a University of Illinois expert who studies operations management.
[...] Using a unique data set from one of the largest banks in China – which contained the transaction data from personal computer, offline and mobile payment channels – Xu and co-authors found that, on average, the total transaction amount increased by 2.4 percent after the adoption of the mobile payment channel, and that the total transaction frequency increased by more than 23 percent.
[...] “Switching to the mobile channel leads to more shopping overall, and it particularly affects more hedonistic shopping such as food, entertainment and travel,” Xu said. “But it doesn’t affect purchases like education or health care. So it’s changing consumer behavior.”
The greatest impact came on less costly items that are purchased frequently, such as beverages and movie tickets.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday December 02 2018, @03:07PM (7 children)
What is the point of "paying with a cell phone" rather than a credit card, other than selling cell phones and letting some additional companies track you?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Immerman on Sunday December 02 2018, @04:36PM (6 children)
Increasing customer spending?
Studies have shown that the further you get psychologically from a wealth transfer, the more impulsive you will be. A direct exchange of goods or services? You'll make sure you get a fair deal. Use cash as an intermediary? You'll be willing to sell for a bit less, and buy for a bit more. More so with paper money than coins. Credit cards push up the amount you'll be willing to overspend a bit more. And it seems phones dial it up a notch further - not surprisingly since a card is still psychologically just a payment device, while a phone enjoys a much broader and deeper psychological connection.
And every step taken to weaken the psychological connection to wealth transfer is another slice of the economic pie that capitalists can put in their own pocket.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 02 2018, @06:13PM (3 children)
Sound plausible, but are there studies to back this up?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 02 2018, @06:25PM (1 child)
Perhaps not. But, think a little bit about yourself, and human psychology, and the process of setting up a phone to make payments for you. You put some amount of work into setting the thing up. When you think you've got it, you have to go test it. Ooops, didn't work, you got some part of the magic incantations wrong, or something. So, you go over the formulas, chant it all again, sign in blood again, and you go test it again. EUREKA!! IT WORKS!! You've invest blood, sweat, and tears, and part of your soul into linking your telephone directly into your bank account. You're going to USE IT now, aren't you?
I strongly suspect that if the studies are done, then GP's claim will be validated. For the reasons I offer, as well as the reasons he offers.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2) by https on Sunday December 02 2018, @07:21PM
I do not use sendmail any more, so there must be a flaw in the reasoning.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 03 2018, @03:32AM
No need for a study, just look at how hard the banks are pushing it.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Sunday December 02 2018, @07:00PM (1 child)
Well, that makes sense. Just look around and watch as every woman out there swipes away at her favorite online shopping site. Cell phones are just a purchasing platform.
But like tracking, there is no benefit to the actual user/customer, just the businesses.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday December 03 2018, @02:38AM
It's only "every woman" if you exclude the many who don't have smartphones (like my paternal aunt), typically use their computer for purchases after doing research & price-comparisons on it (like me), prefer to use their a tablet at home, or generally just don't spend any more time "shopping" than they have to (also like me). Therefore your generalization is invalid, as mass generalizations of half the population typically are.