Consumers still prefer to use PCs to shop online rather than mobile devices, research by Ovum reveals.
The firm discovered the majority of users (68%) would rather use a desktop or laptop to engage in e-commerce, after quizzing 15,000 consumers in 15 global markets. Ovum’s survey found most people still regard mobile based commerce, banking, and payment services as too insecure to be a realistic option, with 49% citing those reasons, and a further 47% expressing concern over the safety of their personal data.
Perhaps more worrying, 50% of respondents say they won’t try mobile payments in the next 12 months.
“The implications of these findings are profound for the growing mobile commerce ecosystem,” notes Angel Dobardziev, principal analyst at Ovum. “This shows that operator strategies that factor in rapid adoption of mobile commerce services need a reality check. Furthermore, the industry must design services that build on users’ comfort with e-commerce over the PC and extend it to the m-commerce domain.”
While online shopping remains a PC affair, Ovum’s study reveals 35% of global users are happy using mobile banking services, though these are typically just checking balances rather than conducting transactions.
There are some bright spots for the industry, though, with Ovum noting users aged 16 to 35 years old are twice as likely to use mobile money services as people aged 35 years and over. “There is no doubt that eventually we’ll see mobile devices used for the majority of our online services, but in the m-commerce sector there is still some way to go,” Dobardziev says.