A new survey from GfK has shown that consumers across fivecountries are not interested in using smartwatches for payments; howeverconsumers are interested in using the new class of wearable technologies forother activities like fitness tracking, online ID and travel ticketing.
The new 5000 people survey of smartphone users in China,Germany, South Korea, the UK and the US found that only 35% of respondentsacross the five countries surveyed are interested in tapping their watch at thecheckout to make contactless payments for goods and services.
However, the surveyresults highlight differences between individual markets, for example 54% ofconsumers in China are interested in making payments via smartwatches, howeveronly 27% of consumers in the UK and only 20% of consumers in Germany express aninterest.
Wearable technologies have yet to truly find their nichemarket with consumers and while certain things like fitness have long beentargeted and have shown great potential. Similarly, payments has greatpotential for wearable technologies but the latest results show that gettingconsumers to move away from payment cards, or even their mobile phones to makepayments on their watches.
While consumers may become more comfortable withsmartwatches for payments moving forward, today clearly payment cards, mobilephones and even traditional payment instruments like cash will remain the most popular payment methods.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, International Advisory Service for Mercator Advisory Group
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