Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

More than 25 percent of U.S. smartphone owners use payment apps at least once a month, according to recent data compiled by Dallas-based research and consulting firm Parks Associates.

The firm said more than three million retailers now accept popular payment services like Apple Pay and Android Pay, but its data indicates consumers currently prefer retailer-specific applications.

"To be frank, I think this has a lot to do with consumers' loyalty to certain brands," said Harry Wang, director of mobile and health research with Parks Associates. "If you have a strong loyalty to the brands, you're more likely to shop at the place and you want to experience the brand in every angle possible, and the payment is part of the experience. Especially if a retailer includes loyalty cards and discounts to consumers that provide more incentive to use those applications."

From the article "Experts: Wal-Mart Pay Needs Perks" by Robbie Neiswanger.

Previously In The News

Streamer eyes yardage as 68% of US households watch NFL

The extent of the opportunity for the soon to be announced NFL+ app, which opens the possibility that all games in America’s most popular sport, could be streamed direct-to-consumer, has been revealed...

Stat Firm Reports Less Than 1% of Subscribers Playing Netflix Games

“Netflix should continue to be vigilant and observant of consumer response as it builds out its still-nascent games portfolio, but I don’t believe it should be overly concerned,” said Parks Associates...

Smart Homes: The Power, the Pleasure and the Pain

Amazon's servers were down for a large part of the morning on the day the outage occurred, taking Alexa-powered devices out of commission. Incidents like this may occur more often as the popularity of...

Here's how banks can reinvigorate deposit growth with incentives

Streaming incentives could appeal to a widespread customer segment. Streaming services have broad appeal: 64% of US households have access to either Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video, and more than...