Merchants Take Note: New Research Reveals $20-$100 is the Mobile Payment Holiday Shopping Sweet Spot

LOWELL, Mass., Oct. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Litle & Co. (www.litle.com), a leading payment processing company for consumer-direct brands, today released the results of an independent consumer survey to determine payments trends this holiday shopping season. The research found that while 60 percent of respondents owned a tablet or smartphone, only one in four have shopped via their mobile devices. Of those who do, the bullseye price point is $20-$100 which accounted for 63 percent of those purchases. Furthermore, consumers are unimpressed with mobile wallets and, instead are torn between using credit and debit/cash this holiday season. For retailers and merchants putting the finishing touches to their fourth quarter marketing, this payments intelligence helps to understand customers' payments preferences and most importantly, to fine-tune campaigns and offers for maximum success.

An infographic of the full research findings can be found at http://www.litle.com/blog/industry-trends/holiday-shopping-payment-preferences-unwrapped

Further findings include:

• Preference to pay now rather than later: While 49 percent of all respondents own three or more credit cards, 53 percent plan to tap their available funds (37 percent using debit and 16 percent using cash) rather than using credit this holiday shopping season. But, for one in three shoppers, credit remains the preferred payment mode for purchases more than $100.
• Affluents are motivated by awards and miles:  Almost half of all cardholders – including 73 percent of people with incomes more than $150,000 – cite the opportunity to earn awards and miles as their primary motivation for using their credit cards.  These consumers are more likely to come from the Northeast and West.
• Mobile payments hype: Only 8.6 percent of shoppers with smartphones think mobile wallets are going to change the payment world. And 71 percent report having never used a merchant's mobile swipe service (such as Square).

"Consumers are carefully choosing between using credit or debit/cash and it's no wonder given the current economic climate," said Ben Saren, vice president of marketing at Litle. "They are making trade-offs between using their available funds rather than credit to defer payment but are evidently swayed by the chance to earn bonus awards and miles. Meanwhile, the number of shoppers transacting via their mobile devices is small, and really calls into question the consumer appetite for mobile payments. For retailers and merchants, these research findings present important insights that should be factored into marketing and targeting plans this holiday shopping season."

Litle & Co. commissioned ResearchNow to survey 500 shoppers, 304 of whom own a smartphone, during September 2012. For the Litle's full analysis and an infographic, visit: http://www.litle.com/blog/industry-trends/holiday-shopping-payment-preferences-unwrapped

About Litle & Co. 
Litle & Co. is the payment processing and intelligence engine behind leading ecommerce and consumer-direct brands, including Overstock.com, Ancestry.com, Gilt Groupe, Guthy-Renker, ShopNBC and Wayfair.com. An authority in card-not-present payments, transaction processing and merchant services, Litle & Co. powers the payment processing engines for leading brands that sell directly to consumers through multichannel and Internet retail, online services, subscription-membership models and direct response marketing. The company is committed to creating customer success through Voice of the Customer initiatives, including Net Promoter Score (NPS), and won 2010 and 2011 Stevie® Awards for eCommerce Customer Service and Product and Service Innovation respectively. To learn more about Litle & Co. visit http://www.litle.com or call 1-800-548-5326. Twitter: @LitleCo LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/HehTRP

SOURCE Litle & Co.