In a ringing endorsement for mobile payments, a new report found that half of the fastest-growing companies offer in-application purchases and mobile payment opportunities.

The research reveals a correlation between mobile payments and growth that suggests that offering the service in-app does more than just add to customer convenience. The numbers may give marketers and brands another reason to take a look into making mobile payments a priority.

“These survey findings reinforce the need for companies to make payment innovation an integral piece of their larger growth strategy,” said Peter Olynick, retail banking senior practice lead for NTT DATA Consulting, Inc.

Mobile payments
Mobile payments have grown at a steady pace since their introduction to the mainstream marketplace a few years ago.

Since then, they have slowly grown to make up a significant portion of the US market – an estimated $220 billion worth by the end of the year.

This has lead to a number of companies both financial and not to create their own mobile payment systems or to integrate mobile payments into their existing mobile apps.

NTT DATA and Ingenico E-payments commissioned a study to look at how having mobile payments integrated into a mobile app affects that app’s growth and whether the existence of a payment system correlates with any other notable factors.

The study looked at a wide variety of apps and companies that had integrated mobile payments and compared them to those that did not.

What they found was that half of the fastest growing companies surveyed had integrated mobile payments while only 32 percent of slower growth companies did so.

The report also looked at how mobile payments affected profits and found that companies that offered mobile payments did better in international markets with the majority of mobile payment providing companies selling internationally while far fewer companies without mobile payments did so.

Room for growth
One of the more interesting parts of the report involves how mobile payments play in different parts of the world.

Surprisingly, mobile payment solutions are much more popular in developing nations rather than in developed nations such as the US.

Instead, mobile payments are twice as likely to be used by a consumer in a developing market.

This can possibly be attributed to the relative lack of desktop and other digital access in those markets, leading to consumers relying more on their single mobile devices than on others.

This research reflects popular notions of how effective mobile payments are in the industry. Mastercard recently released a digital directory of where its mobile payments platform can be used, in order to boost engagement (see story).

Additionally, other companies such as Visa are trying to bring mobile payments wherever customers have a digital connection (see story).

This new data shows that mobile payment is better for more than just customer convenience, it can also be a genuine driver of engagement and profit, especially across borders.

“Companies should be working to provide a frictionless payment experience by bringing consumers innovative new products and processes,” Mr. Olynick said. “Their efforts will help improve customer satisfaction, facilitate cross-border commerce and allow for a more efficient shopping experience.”