SAN FRANCISCO—A new report outlines what it calls a “market-sizing for the bill payments business,” and includes strategies for upgrading and marketing bill payment services to win over “four critical segments.”
The report, called Mobile Bill Pay: Strategies to Grow Adoption and Build Engagement, from Javelin Strategy & Research, said that Americans pay $3.3 trillion annually for just seven important bills, with mobile payments currently making up $95 million.
The study notes that more than one-in-four Americans reached for a mobile phone or tablet to pay bills in the past month, a figure that rises to three-in-four of a profitable segment of affluent, mobile-first consumers.
“But as impressive as the adoption rate is, Americans still treat it as an occasional option, an experiment, or a novelty — not their main method of paying bills,” said the study’s authors. “Consumers cite many misgivings that point to a lack of awareness that keeps them from even trying mobile bill payment, let alone distinguishing whether that experience would be better over their current bill-payment method.”
“Mobile bill payments are primed for rapid growth, but consumers will not scrap their bill-paying habits if mobile bill payment offers little more than another way to pay,” said Mark Schwanhauser, director of Omnichannel Financial Services for Javelin Strategy & Research. “Paying bills on a smartphone or tablet won’t become their habitual, primary way to pay bills unless mobile bill pay developers offer an obvious upgrade and allay security fears – both of which are areas critical to holdouts.”
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