A Solid Opening Quarter of 2024 for A1 Group
In the first quarter of 2024, Austrian-based A1 Group reported solid results.
Buying online with a mobile device and using a phone to pay for goods and services at the point of sale (POS) have been slow to catch on in Germany, where cash remains king for most forms of purchasing. But both are growing as consumers acclimatize to digital buying and payment options, according to eMarketer study.
Despite digital shopper penetration akin to the US and UK, rates of mobile commerce in Germany have lagged in relation to those countries. eMarketer predicts 29.1 million mobile device users in Germany ages 14 and older will make at least one purchase via those devices this year, up nearly 15% from 2016. But that tally will represent just 60.0% of Germany’s mobile device users, compared with rates of 80.4% in the US and 76.4% in the UK.
The majority of those buyers (71.7%) will make one or more mcommerce purchase via smartphones during the year—a usage rate higher than the 64.6% of US mobile device buyers expected to do the same. But only 46.5% of mobile device buyers in Germany will turn to tablets for mcommerce in 2017, vs. a 68% purchasing rate among tablet users in the US.
By 2020, nearly two-thirds (66.0%) of digital buyers in Germany will make purchases via a smartphone or a tablet at least once per year, helped not only by greater comfort with the concept of mcommerce but also due to larger screens and other improvements to the mcommerce user experience, eMarketer expects.
Like buying via mobile device, paying at a retailer’s physical POS will also be less common in Germany than in comparable countries. eMarketer predicts just 11.4% of Germany’s mobile phone users will make a proximity mobile payment by taping, swiping or checking in with that device while in a store in 2017. In the US, that percentage will be 20.5%.
However, the number of mobile proximity payment users in Germany will have grown 21.6% by year’s end to nearly 7.3 million. Consistent increases will see that total pass 11 million in 2020, eMarketer predicts.