How To Sell Mobile Capture to Millennials

Lately, the payments industry has been much taken with the so-called Millennial generation and how to appeal to it. Now, research released last month indicates a key to this question is to take advantage of the one smart-phone activity the 18-to-34 age group has made famous: the selfie.

The research, conducted by Zogby Analytics and sponsored by Mitek Systems Inc., a San Diego-based mobile-capture technology firm, points up the importance of the smart-phone camera to the Millennial age group and indicates a link between that affinity and a willingness to perform mobile check deposits and bill payments.

That connection could be crucial for financial institutions. “The Millennial generation is an important growth segment for many financial institutions,” says Sarah Clark, vice president of product at Mitek. “They are using mobile devices in droves for commerce. They expect to do so.”

Some 68% of the more than 1,000 Millennials surveyed said they use their phones at least once a week to take pictures of themselves. Only 17% said they had never taken a selfie. Nearly all the respondents—96%—said the camera was either somewhat or very important as a feature of the phone.

Then, asked whether they had ever performed a mobile check deposit—a function that requires taking a picture of the check—54% said they have, while 68% said they would use the camera for other forms of mobile capture rather than type information into an app using the phone’s keyboard.

In fact, 70% of the respondents said they have at least once given up on a session requiring manual data entry on the phone. The two leading reasons were that the process was too slow (31%) or that it required too much information (23%).

The survey also indicates high interest in other financial functions that can be performed on a smart phone. Some 61% said they have used their phones to send, or would be comfortable sending, money to a friend or another person whom they trust. Half of the Millennials say they use their phones to make a purchase at least a few times a week.

But this demographic group is also concerned about security. “People want to use mobile, but they are also very aware that there are data breaches and identity fraud,” says Clark.

Fifty-four percent of the respondents said security is more important than convenience when using a mobile device, while 16% said the two factors are equal. Among a number of factors that could prevent them from using their phones more often, respondents ranked “concerns about my data security” (53%) and “concerns about identity fraud” (52%) highest.

Asked about authentication safeguards, most of the respondents (51%) ranked fingerprint authentication highest, followed by facial recognition (16%) and voice recognition (9%). Only 10% cited passwords.

—John Stewart