Dive Brief:

• Some 38% of consumers avoid contactless payment methods due to security concerns and a lack of familiarity, according to a survey by IT consulting firm Vista Retail Support. 

• Nearly a quarter of consumers say they don’t know if their cards are enabled for radio-frequency identification (RFID) payments or that they haven’t seen any demonstration on how to use an RFID-enabled card. The cards can be waved over RFID-enabled point-of-sales systems and require no PIN or signature.

• Consumers who do use the cards say they like the speed and the ability to avoid interacting with a cashier.

Dive Insight:

Clearly, any lack of comfort or understanding about how to use any payment system will impede its adoption. If retailers want more shoppers to use cards with radio-frequency identification (RFID) to avoid the traditional — and slower — swiping of cards, they must let their customers know how to use them. Because current fears about data protection are leading to some consumers’ avoidance, it would be interesting to know the implications of that reluctance for mobile payments.