Mobile Commerce in Asia: Insights and Trends

Mobile commerce is growing rapidly in Asia. To gain consumer insights, Accenture surveyed 1,100 “tech forward”  respondents in 11 countries*, who use at least four Internet-connected devices and at least four Internet services.

The survey revealed that consumers in Asia were the most enthusiastic about mobile commerce. Here are some key findings of the survey:

1. In favor of Mobile Commerce:

• 69% of survey respondents in Asia indicated they prefer using mobile phones for most payments
• Chinese consumers (76%) were the most favorable towards mobile commerce followed by India (75%), Korea (56%) and Japan (47%)

2. Mobile commerce activity in the last 6 months:

• 47% of tech forward consumers in China indicated that they had used mobile commerce in the past 6 months
• Japan, at 33% was amongst the top 3 countries in Asia to be highly using mobile commerce

3. Usage of barcode or near field communications (NFC) technology in Asia

• 38% of consumers surveyed had scanned a product’s barcode while shopping to get additional information
• 36% had displayed a “digital ticket” for admission to an event or to board a flight
• 31% had purchased an item or received a coupon from a “smart poster” containing an electronic tag or barcode.
• A majority (64%) of consumers surveyed indicated they would use gift cards and coupons delivered directly to their mobile phones, led by Chinese respondents (94%) Korean respondents (91%) and Indian respondents (76%)
• Globally, 79% of the consumers surveyed indicated they would redeem those coupons when checking out of a store, compared with 77% who said they would use coupons that had to be clipped from magazines.

4. Discounts and Promotions

• 62% of consumers surveyed who typically use a credit card for non-telco-related monthly payments said they would use their mobile phone to pay their bill, if they were to receive a 20% discount
• 59% said they would welcome receiving money-off promotions based on their past purchases
• 47% said they would welcome receiving personalized mobile phone ads when they are within a few steps of the promoted product or service
• 69% indicated they would gladly accept mobile phone ads sent to their phones as part of their service contract in exchange for lower mobile phone usage fees.

5. Companies enabling the future of mobile commerce

• 59% thought that role would fall on credit card companies
• 54% said that it would be wireless operators
• Software companies (52%), large retailers (52%) and device makers (48%) were highly voted too