New Survey Finds Mobile Wallets at Tipping Point for Consumer Adoption

PORTLAND, OR--(Marketwired - July 27, 2016) - Regardless of age, gender and location, consumers want to use mobile wallets to communicate with brands about sales, offers, coupons, loyalty programs and more, according to The State of Mobile Wallet Marketing report published today by Urban Airship, the mobile engagement leader. Urban Airship conducted a survey of 1,000 U.S. and 1,000 U.K. adults to analyze their attitudes, expectations and adoption of mobile wallets.

Mobile wallets are native to iOS and Android with Apple Wallet and Android Pay allowing smartphone users to receive and store content like event tickets, boarding passes, coupons and loyalty cards, as well as make mobile payments with credit and debit cards. Brands are increasingly using the non-payment capabilities of mobile wallets to reach and engage consumers, and the report finds that customers are responding. Overall, the majority of consumers (54 percent) have now used mobile wallets, with 30 percent of respondents using them in the past week. However, there are large gaps between what consumers have in their mobile wallets and what they want, suggesting strong demand for a wide-range of purpose-built mobile wallet items.

Mobile wallets, the report says, are now among the top four ways consumers prefer to stay updated on sales, offers and coupons, alongside decades-old channels including websites, email and text/SMS. Adoption is especially high for people with above-median household incomes and millennials, an age group where apps and mobile wallets displaced text/SMS from the top four preferred communication channels. The young and more well-off also skew much higher in behaviors that make mobile wallets an ideal fit, from letting physical coupons go unused or expire, to desiring the dynamic engagement and reminder functionality that mobile wallets provide.

See additional key findings below, or download the full report.

"GameStop's PowerUp Rewards™ program is one of the fastest growing loyalty programs in retail and we continue to make enhancements so rewards can be issued monthly and customized to each customer's preferences," said Darin Smith, Senior Director of GameStop's PowerUp Rewards program. "Mobile wallets give us another highly visible and convenient way to reach more customers with the personalized benefits of our exclusive loyalty program."