Mobile contactless transactions topped £370 million in the first six months of 2017, a massive 336 per cent year-on-year rise in spending, new data suggests.
In addition, overall spend on contactless reached £9 billion in first six months of the year, compared to £10 billion for the whole of 2016.
According to payments processor Worldpay, spending on all forms of contactless systems now accounts for 38 per cent of all non-cash transactions in the UK.
The use of mobile devices to make in-store payments has been growing steadily since the UK launch of Apple Pay in 2015, but Worldpay’s data said it was only really in the past 12 months that the technology has begun to gain widespread acceptance – especially with the launch of Android Pay in 2016 and Samsung Pay earlier this year.
Monthly spending on mobile devices shot up by 57 per cent in the past six months, with £46 million spent using mobiles in January compared to £74 million in June.
READ MORE: Retailers call for boost in contactless spend cap
Meanwhile, while mobile‘s share overall when it comes to in-store transactions has risen from 1.18 per cent at the end of 2016 to 2.04 per cent in June this year.
“Mobile spending has shaken off the novelty tag, and is breaking its own spending records virtually every month,” Worldpay chief marketing officer James Frost said.
“Granted there‘s still some way to go before we start cutting up our cards and chucking away our wallets, but it‘s easy to see why everyone from start-ups to tech giants is eager to have a stake in the technology.”
Supermarkets and grocery stores continue to dominate the mobile tap and pay market, accounting for 55 per cent of total spend so far in 2017.
Frost added: “Mobile is already emerging as the dominant payment channel for ecommerce. It‘s very difficult to argue against it doing the same for in-store payments; and at a far faster rate than many would imagine.”
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
