Mobile - Purchases of real and digital goods to rise to USD 200 billion by 2012

[marketwire] A new study by Juniper Research forecasts that the value of digital and physical goods that people buy with their mobiles will reach $200bn globally by 2012, compared to just less than $100bn this year. Digital goods include entertainment and tickets, whilst physical goods include groceries, gifts and books.

The new study on Mobile Payments for Digital and Physical Goods found that the availability of secure, easy-to-use, payment applications and the growing realisation of users that they can make ecommerce purchases by mobile will drive the market.

Report author Howard Wilcox gave more details: "Our research showed that the purchase experience has been enhanced by improved mobile commerce transaction processes due to faster mobile networks, more powerful devices and much more user friendly Smartphone apps. Amazon Payments for example has recently introduced payment-processing tools for mobile devices, enabling Smartphone users to buy with one click."

However, the Juniper report also underlined that retailers and merchants need to communicate the cost of transactions clearly so that people are not discouraged from buying by mobile.

Further key findings from the mobile payments report include:

* The frequency of physical goods purchased will be higher than average in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe;
* Brands, retailers and merchants have a significant opportunity to increase their revenues through highly targeted marketing campaigns, using apps and mobile web payments as a convenience play for users.

The report adopts an innovative new quadrant approach to compare the positioning of mobile payments vendors. The forecasts provide detailed five year regional data for mobile payments for digital & physical goods, showing key parameters including subscriber take-up, transaction sizes and volumes. The study also reveals the strategies that are being used to enable users to pay by mobile through case studies from companies such as 1-800Flowers.com and Zong.

Mobile Payment Transactions to Double in Value to $200bn by 2012, According to Juniper Research