A BofA Survey Finds More Consumers Are Using Their Phones to Make Purchases

The number of consumers of all age groups who would or already use their phones to make purchases at the checkout increased to 40% this year, finds Bank of America Corp.’s “Trends in Consumer Mobility Report 2016,” released Tuesday.

That’s up from 34% in 2015. Younger consumers—Millennials between 18 and 34 years old—were most inclined to do so at 57%.

Mobile payments in stores is long-sought-after consumer behavior. While perhaps best known through the services of Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Samsung Pay, and Alphabet Inc.’s Android Pay, mobile payment is becoming more available as banks are adding payment options to their wallets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is making its Chase Pay service available in its wallet, and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. is adding a mobile-wallet payment capability to its app on Android smart phones.

The survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers also inquired about how consumers pay another person. Cash, at 57%, remains the most favored option, followed by check, 40%, and digital payments, including payment and mobile banking apps, 28%.

BofA broke out the preferences of older Millennials, those between 25 and 34, in paying their friends. Checks, at 22%, were the least favored, with digital payments at 39%, and cash, at 69%, the clear favorite.

When asked specifically about using a peer-to-peer money-transfer service, only 7% of all respondents already use one and 50% say they would. The figures are slightly higher for older Millennials, at 10% and 67%, respectively. The most important factors in using one, in terms of how many respondents cited them, are convenience, 59%; incentives, 29%; real-time capability, 23%; and popularity among others, 20%.

Millennials, overall, stood out as early adopters of digital payments technology. Twenty-two percent of them are likely to use a digital currency compared with 17% of consumers overall. The younger generation also is more likely to use mobile wallets, 40% compared with 33% overall; and P2P payments, 37% for Millennials and 29% of all consumers.

The favorite activities for using a mobile device, for all consumers, is getting directions, 66%; followed by booking travel, 51%; scheduling appointments, 46%; ordering food, 24%; and shopping, 19%.