Are millennials just not that interested in mobile and alternative payments? Recent studies suggest that might be the case.
Millennials, those that are currently between 18 and 34-years-old, are known for being obsessed with smartphones, social media, and apps, but they may not be as interested in mobile payments as previously thought. It may sound crazy at first, as this group is known for being all about the future of technology and incorporating it as much as possible.
A recent study looked at 1,000 Americans that span the ages of 18 to 34 in order to determine their feelings about alternative payment systems, especially mobile payments. The results show that 91 percent of Millennials have at least one debit card and use them regularly; 80 percent reported having a regular credit card. Most older Millennials (25-years-old to 34) use a credit card for online purchases, and the younger half of this demographic does so similarly with 67 percent.
Millennials know about alternative payment methods – they know about most things to do with technology. They are just not using it as much. The study revealed that 66 percent of Millennials have at least one payment app, like Venmo or PayPal, installed on their smartphones. Bitcoins are all but completely unappealing to this group – 63 percent have heard of bitcoins, but only 12 percent have actually used it. Overall, 14 percent of respondents said that they used Apple Pay. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but less than half of all respondents owned the necessary iPhone 6 to have Apple Pay.
This report may be troubling to some, especially those for whom this is a target market. After all, Millennials are poised to be the next big spending generation. However, there are a few things to consider. The sample size for the study was only 1,000 people out of a Millennial population of more than 75 million people in the United States alone. This leaves a lot of room for doubt, as one could easily argue that this slice does is not a proper representation of the greater group.
It is also important to remember that alternative payment methods and mobile payments are in their infancy. If alternative payments are designed to be convenient, then it must become much more convenient. Currently, few businesses accept alternative payment methods and do not have the proper payment processing equipment to accept mobile payments, which in turn dampens it use among Millennials. Millennials are also still establishing themselves financially so their spending habits may change once they have more funds to spend.
