Adyen Mobile Payment Index Shows Continued Growth in M-Commerce With 70% of Merchants Transacting Via the Mobile Web

The continued growth in mobile payments this quarter is reflected by the fact that 70% of Adyen merchants worldwide are seeing payments traffic originating from the mobile web. This growth in mobile payments manifested across several key verticals tracked by Adyen each quarter, including Travel (+5%), Ticketing (+3.2%), Retail (+2.8%) and Digital Goods (e.g., books, movies, music, etc.; (+6.2%). The Index illustrates that the previous high growth rates in mobile web payments is starting to level out as m-commerce becomes more mainstream. The Gaming sector showed a small decline this quarter (-1.6%) as in-app payments have become more prevalent.

“Now that the majority of merchants worldwide are engaging with consumers via the mobile web, the paradigm has shifted from, ‘Will people actually buy goods and services with their mobile devices?’ to ‘Fact: mobile commerce is a vital sales channel for both merchants and consumers – and therefore deserves increased focus,” said Roelant Prins, Chief Commercial Officer at Adyen, which processed more than $2.2 billion in mobile payments in 2013.

For merchants, the key to maximizing mobile conversions is to make m-commerce as convenient and frictionless as possible for consumers by implementing one-click payments using previously stored secure payment data. For merchants, it is crucial to ensure the highest levels of security using features like Adyen’s Client Side Encryption, which encrypts the shopper’s payment data the moment it is transmitted from an app or the shopper’s browser. Another key feature that is driving the growth of secure mobile commerce is Tokenization, whereby merchants can complete payment transactions using a digital ‘token’ that is linked to the customer’s securely stored payments data on Adyen’s servers – rather than collecting and storing the payments data themselves. Combined, these technologies facilitate seamless mobile commerce for consumers while enabling PCI compliance for merchants.  

Smartphones Lead in Transactions but Tablet Users Spend More Per-Transaction In terms of mobile web transactions, smartphones lead with nearly 54% (+2.9% over last quarter) compared to tablets, which captured 46% (-2.9%). The iPhone continues to lead smartphone transactions with nearly 31%, but Android phones are very strong with a 22.5% share. Windows Mobile and BlackBerry represent 0.6% and 0.1% respectively. On tablet devices, the iPad dominates with 38.4% (-3.6%), compared to 7.6% on Android tablets (+0.7%).

Mobile web transaction volume increased in Q1 across all industry sectors tracked except Gaming, whose transaction numbers declined on both smartphones (-19%) and tablets (-10%) as in-app payments are becoming more and more popular in this sector. This quarter, Digital Goods purchases (e.g., books and other content) on tablets grew 50%, and smartphone purchases increased 30%. In Retail, Travel and Ticketing, smartphone purchases increased 31%, 26% and 21% respectively, but tablet purchases saw less than 10% growth each (8%, 5% and 8% respectively).

Share of Transaction Volume:

• Travel: smartphones 22% (up from 17.5% in Q4); tablets 12.5% (up from 11.9%)

• Retail: tablets 16.5% (15.9%); smartphones 9.3% (7.1%)

• Ticketing: smartphones 15.75% (13%), tablets 8.1% (7.5%)

• Digital goods: smartphones 16.9% (13%); tablets 7.5% (5%)

• Gaming: smartphones 7.3% (down from 9% in Q4); tablets 2.7% (down from 3%)

In terms of transaction amounts, the Travel sector was the clear winner in Q1, with its average value per transaction increasing 63% on tablets and nearly 30% on smartphones over Q4. Despite a reduction in actual mobile web transactions, the Gaming sector’s average per-transaction value increased 18% on smartphones and nearly 7% on tablets. Ticketing showed marginal growth in Q1 (3% on tablets, 2% on smartphones), but both the Retail and Digital Goods sectors saw a decline in transaction values (Retail: -8% on tablets, -15% on smartphones; Digital Goods: -4% on tablets, more than 4% on smartphones). Across all industry sectors, consumers spent more money via tablets than via smartphones, and tablets also beat out PC purchases in Ticketing, Gaming and Digital Goods.

Average transaction value:

• Travel: PC €203 ($281 USD); tablets €145 ($201); smartphones: €57 ($79)

• Retail: PC €104 ($144); tablets €82 ($113); smartphones €56 ($77)

• Ticketing: tablets €48 ($66); PC €47 ($65); smartphones €44 ($61)

• Gaming: tablets €48 ($66); PC €40 ($55); smartphones €39 ($54)

• Digital Goods: tablets €25 ($35); PC €24 ($33); smartphones €21 ($29) 

“The decrease in average per-transaction value for Retail and Digital Goods this quarter may be attributed to a post-holiday season correction, as mobile consumers return to more normal purchasing behaviors, or the fact that mobile has become more mainstream, generating an increasing number of smaller transactions,” said Prins. “Either way, the continued popularity of m-commerce among consumers sends a clear signal that merchants should increase their focus on the mobile channel.” 

The transaction data that Adyen captures from its merchants base worldwide is helping companies formulate successful mobile strategies that optimize the customer experience. Adyen’s omni-channel payments platform enables merchants to monitor and analyze their mobile traffic and compare it to other sales channels, empowering them to make more informed decisions. 

A significant trend that Adyen is seeing is that more and more merchants are developing dedicated native apps to interact and transact with their customers on mobile devices and tablets. These apps run separately from the merchant’s e-commerce websites. Transaction data from these native apps are excluded from the Adyen Mobile Payment Index, which covers the percentage of e-commerce transactions originating from mobile and tablet devices.

“At Polagram, we offer our services exclusively to mobile users, who use our app to bring the photos on their mobile devices to life in the physical world,” said Jeremy Charoy, co-founder of Polagram. “We have ambitious international expansion plans and identified Adyen as the best partner to support our mobile commerce strategy on an international scale.”

“Since the rollout of Adyen’s payment solution across our online and mobile sites, functionalities such as single-click payments have been instrumental in increasing conversion and generating additional revenue for Groupon’s business in Asia,” said Joanne Soo, head of product innovation, Groupon Asia. “Adyen has also tailored and accommodated the many different payment methods across each of our markets in the region, and we are very happy with their services.”

About Adyen

Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) is the payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, providing a modern end-to-end infrastructure connecting directly to Visa, Mastercard, and consumers' globally preferred payment methods. Adyen delivers frictionless payments across online, mobile, and in-store channels. With offices across the world, Adyen serves customers including Facebook, Uber, Spotify, Microsoft, Casper, Bonobos and L'Oréal.