The widespread acceptance of mobile payments in physical retail stores in the UK has led to significant growth in the number of transactions, a new report has found.
In the first six months of this year, the value of mobile contactless transactions grew by 336 percent year-on-year to hit £370 million, according to payments processor Worldpay.
Consumers spent £74 million in June, up from £46 million in January, with mobile’s share of overall in-store transactions rising from 1.18 percent to 2.04 percent over the period.
Supermarkets and grocery stores dominate the market, accounting for 55 percent of total mobile payment spend.
Worldpay said growth was down in part to the launch of Apple Pay in 2015, Android Pay in 2016 and Samsung Pay earlier this year.
Although contactless payments of all flavours now account for 38 percent of non-cash transactions in the UK, mobile payments remain comparatively rare.
Total contactless spend in the first half of 2017 was £9 billion, meaning mobile accounted for just over four percent.
James Frost, UK CMO of Worldpay, said: “Mobile spending has shaken off the novelty tag, and is breaking its own spending records virtually every month.
“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.”