Black Friday to Cyber Monday proved to be a mobile payments bonanza on PayPal’s platform. As the following Mobile Marketing article reports, mobile volume set records for the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
Payment company PayPal said its mobile transaction volume surged 42% to a record of more than $1 billion on Black Friday, TechCrunch reported. Mobile payment growth expanded at a faster pace on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday, which also rose to more than $1 billion as more consumers used smartphones to shop.
Mobile payment volume from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday made up 43% of PayPal’s total payment volume worldwide. During those days, PayPal processed more than $25,000 a second, $11,000 of which came from mobile purchases, per TechCrunch.
Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday also saw major lifts in spend from last year. Thanksgiving is now one of the top 10 shopping days of the year, with total payment volume, including mobile transactions, up 41% from last year. PayPal reported $98 million worth of charitable donations — up 51% from 2017 — on Giving Tuesday this year.
Mobile devices are growing increasingly important for on-the-go payments, pointing to how marketers need to ensure their apps and mobile websites can handle a surge in visitor traffic and payment volume. At the same time, this highlights how stores should focus on integrating new payments options during peak shopping seasons, including in-store payments via mobile wallets, PayPal, wearables and scan-and-go options.
It’s official—mobile shop and pay has now come into its own. Mobile browsers and merchant apps have made a dramatic turnaround from the earlier days of marginal customer experiences. It doesn’t hurt that smartphones have larger screens and operate with faster processors on more advanced cellular network connectivity. Merchants that made significant omnichannel investments are now enjoying the benefits.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Advisory Services at Mercator Advisory Group
