Here we provide the latest information and statistics you need to know regarding mobile adoption in the financial services industry and best practices for improving adoption once your mobile strategy is in place.
Mobile Payments by the Numbers
The number of consumers who have made mobile payments has risen to one-third of consumers (33.9%) in 2012, up from 19.3% of consumers in 2011, according to a June 2012 IDC Financial Insights study, and new research from IDC Financial Insights forecasts that worldwide mobile payments will hit $1 trillion by 2017. Further, this figure represents only a fraction (estimated 2.5%) of the potential for worldwide mobile commerce! Mobile commerce is exploding, along with the volume of tablets and smartphones entering the marketplace over the next five years.
Mobile Adoption by Financial Services Product
In Q2 2011, 54% of bank account owners used their phone or tablet to manage their checking or savings account and make transactions, according to data from the Compete Mobile Financial Services Intelligence survey (n=1,200).
Here’s the breakdown of mobile financial services use by product, which may help to benchmark where your financial service product current stands in the adoption curve:
Average All Products
38%
Checking/Savings
54%
Credit Card
36%
Investing/Brokerage
28%
Auto Insurance
17%
Best Practices for Increasing Mobile Adoption
Once you’ve designed your mobile strategy, there is still work to do post-rollout. Here are some best practices to help guide mobile adoption.
• Add value and address concerns. A recent article from American Banker reports that, to increase adoption beyond tech savvy first movers, mobile financial services need to be useful, accessible, secure, familiar and easy to use. Make sure your solution meets these criteria to maximize adoption.
• Marketing is key. New data reported by Fiserv found that financial institutions that have actively marketed mobile banking have experienced an average adoption rate that is twice as high as financial institutions that have not promoted the service; companies who did market their mobile services saw an adoption rate of 20 percent or greater, versus 10 percent for companies who did not market mobile products and solutions.
• Leverage MRM. Marketing technology solutions such as marketing resource management systems can help to coordinate personalized and streamlined multichannel marketing campaigns to help drive mobile banking adoption, while data from PURLs and QR codes can be leveraged to determine which customers have not adopted your mobile solution.
The Final Word
According to a recent study from Google, 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company in the future. Mobile optimized websites are requisite to preparing for the inevitable consumer exodus to mobile payments. To get ready, your mobile optimized website should be (as summarized from Bank Systems & Technology):
• Fast. Website load times for tablets should not exceed two seconds if possible, which means that you should limit content such as heavy graphics on mobile sites.
• Optimized for touch. Smartphones and tablets are touch, not point-and-click, driven. Make sure your site shows sensitivity to the differences in navigating on a PC versus a mobile device.
• Screen appropriate. A different version of your website should be served to tablets versus smartphones to create a user-friendly browsing experience that minimizes defection to competitive websites.
Finally, a plan for marketing your mobile payments platform post-launch correlates to increased mobile payment adoption. Marketing resource management systems can help to coordinate delivery of personalized drip and trigger campaigns throughout the launch and beyond.
Are you prepared for the five-year forecasted growth in mobile payments and smartphone and tablet shipments? Is your mobile website optimized for multiple screen sizes?
