Dive Brief:

• Security concerns are the main reason people resist using their smartphone to make payments, according to a study by payment service PayPal and research firm Reputation Leaders Ltd. 

• 78% of those surveyed find online payments easy, while 42% said they don’t use mobile to pay. The survey also uncovered several annoyances that people find with online and mobile payments, including having to re-enter payment information or having pages time out before an online transaction is complete.

• Shoppers in the U.S., while concerned about mobile, are comfortable with web payments: Only 29% worry about inputting payment data online. 50% say they would spend more at farmers markets and small businesses locally if mobile payments were accepted. The survey asked questions of 15,105 adults in 15 countries.

Dive Insight:

Many of these questions were apparently designed to uncover useful information for PayPal, but much of what is here is useful to anyone interested in what should come next for mobile payments.

It’s true that PayPal’s web-based payment service enjoys the confidence of many shoppers, especially in the United States. If the same level of confidence can be achieved for mobile, the added convenience could unleash a lot of phone and tablet-based spending. The questions that remain: How secure is mobile, and how secure must it be to achieve more business?