BOSTON—In what may throw some water on predictions of the future of digital wallets, mobile payments at the point of sale sputtered on Black Friday, according to one report.
Payment technology company Cayan revealed this that smartphone payment apps accounted for just 1% of its retail partners' one-million-plus in-store payment transactions on Black Friday, Payments Today reported.
The report comes at a time when the future of mobile payments has begun to be questioned by analysts, who cite that mobile payments adoption has lagged well behind expectations. Some have said that tap-and-pay by phone could get leapfrogged by some other technology, including NFC plastic. They key problem facing mobile payments, experts say, is that they are not much more convenient than paying with plastic, therefore ineffective at shifting consumer behavior.
Another problem facing mobile payments are in-store devices to support phone payments—a problem that was much worse when e-wallets first arrived. But the report from Payments Today says erratic support from U.S. retailers for in-store, proximity-based mobile payments likely contributed to low use among consumers as the holiday shopping season began.