India’s mCommerce market is one of the fastest growing in the world, as consumers increasingly turn to their phones to pay for goods and services. Growing at a rate of 28 percent annually, the Indian mCommerce market will more than double over the next four years, set to be worth $54.0bn in 2022, according to new data from Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE: WP; LSE: WPY), a global leader in the payments technology industry. Mobile commerce is also on track to overtake desktop sales as the online channel of choice as early as 2020 in India.
In its annual Global Payments Report, Worldpay found that India’s mCommerce growth is driven by the rise of eWallets; currently accounting for a quarter of online sales, eWallets are forecasted to make up 44 percent of the market by 2022. eWallets are also gaining popularity in-store, growing at a rate of 39 percent each year. Already familiar with using smartphones for social networking, Indian consumers are using their trusted mobile devices to pay for goods both online and offline.
Worldpay’s report, which examines online shopping in 36 countries across five continents, found that mCommerce currently accounts for 38 percent of the $1.3tn global eCommerce market, and is set to grow by a staggering 19 percent over the next four years. By 2022, the largest mCommerce markets in the world are forecasted to be China ($1.18tn), U.S. ($0.36tn), UK ($115.3bn), France ($62.3bn) and India ($54bn).
Ron Kalifa, Executive Director at Worldpay, Inc., said: “India is a mobile-first country, with the majority of digital time being spent on smartphones. As the number of mobile users increases exponentially over the next few years, so will the rise of mCommerce and eWallets for payments.
While the use of cash remains popular, it will decrease dramatically over the next four years — and merchants must prepare for the increased use of mobile instead.”
Worldpay has published guidelines for merchants to help capitalise on the global mCommerce opportunity:
- Consider developing a branded app, as the majority of shoppers prefer apps to mobile browsers when shopping on their smartphone.[1] It’s no longer enough to have a mobile-optimised website — if you’re not prioritising a transactional app for your brand; you’re not putting your best foot forward.
- Use biometrics to speed the journey. Shoppers are becoming increasingly familiar with fingerprint scanning and facial recognition. Biometrics place payments at the back of the user’s mind, making the payment seem ‘invisible’.
- Identify the most popular payment methods in each territory in which you operate. There’s no one-size-fits-all in any region so you’ll need to understand the best options for your company.
It is also important to ensure payments take into account India’s recent data localisation requirements.[2]
To learn more about these key insights and trends in global payments, visit:
https://worldpay.globalpaymentsreport.com/
| [1] Worldpay Mobile Payment Journey 2018 |
| [2] In April 2018, the Reserve Banks of India published restrictions on how payment transaction data must be held, specifically requiring that this information must not be stored outside of India for all domestic Indian transactions. |
