LONDON—Wearables are joining mobile phones as a high-growth payment method, a new report indicates.
According to Barclaycard's Contactless Spending Index, the value of mobile phone-based touch-and-go payments using its bPay payments chip, which is embedded in items such as watches and jewelry, increased by 365% in 2017 compared with 2016, ComputerWeekly reported.
Over the same period, mobile phone-based contactless payments using its Android app saw a 129% increase in the value transacted, the news outlet said.
Overall, including the more established cards, contactless payments saw a 79% increase in the value transacted over the same period, ComputerWeekly said.