Thais show sharp preference for mobile wallet payments if incentives and security are done right

The fourth instalment of the annual study discovered that 94 per cent of respondents would be more likely to replace cash with a mobile wallet if payment comes with features such as offers and rewards. 
Builtin functions such as loyalty programmes, instant purchase notifications and digital receipts to track expenses will make consumers more likely to try mobile wallets.
“The findings from this study confirm that consumers not only expect fast, simple and secure mobile payments, they also want access to relevant services such as promotions and the ability to collect and utilise reward points. 
“Whatever the form factor, people are moving away from seeing payment as just a commodity. 
“As a global leader in payments, Visa enriches the entire payment ecosystem by offering global acceptance, innovative product platforms, reward incentives, and state of the art security,” said Suripong Tantiyanon, Visa’s manager for Thailand. 
Payments made via mobile applications are on the rise, particularly for financial products and services such as investment units, and online shopping. 
The former constituted as much as half of all mobile transactions, while the latter comprised three in 10 (31 per cent). In the case of financial products and services, the increase from the previous year was a robust 14 percent. 
The study showed that nine in 10 respondents (87 per cent) have made a mobile payment in the past year, with 58 per cent already using it on a weekly basis. Yet the biggest barrier to entry remains security.
The main barriers to mobile payment adoption are fear of phone hacking and data theft (34 per cent), losing your phone or having it stolen (22 per cent), unauthorised access to personal accounts (17 per cent), and viruses and malware (9 per cent).