The future of the wallet isn’t bright, at least according to PayPal’s recently published survey. According to their research, the majority of Canadians aspire to a wallet-free lifestyle. They are followed by other countries like Australia, Germany and the UK.
Nine out of ten Canadians (87%) would leave their wallets at home, and nearly one in four (23%) of the surveyed Canadians aged 18-24 would opt for a mobile payment method instead of a wallet.
Canadians are in good company: 87 per cent wish they could leave a wallet at home; Germans, Americans, Australians and Brits agreed overwhelmingly (90%, 86%, 80% and 76% respectively) that they’d like to leave a wallet at home;
Canadians are most likely to find themselves unable to make a purchase because they don’t have cash with them (75%); Germans are the least likely (57%);
The UK may be leading the charge towards a wallet-less future – 32 per cent reported they would choose a smartphone over a wallet when going out if they could only bring one item.
Although this number bears great significance for Canadian mobile payment processors, there appears to be a discrepancy between consumer demand and reality. Some 75% of Canadians have reportedly been unable to pay for something due to lack of cash, with the same young age group (18-24) facing the above situation frequently, despite some obvious efforts coming from the mobile industry to meet this demand. As we previously reported Bell and RBC teamed up to provide their own secure mobile payments solution which is currently limited to Bell Mobility smartphones.
But the PayPal survey isn’t limited to Canada. ‘Consumer frustration’ is spread across the globe apparently, based on surveys conducted in Australia, Canada, Germany, the US and the UK.
With summer vacations just around the corner, Canadians apparently have big plans, but taking their wallet isn’t included–at least at the beach. As the survey points out, they don’t wish to take their wallet to a bar, laundromat, grocery store or restaurant as well.
The beach (70%) topped the survey as the place most Canadians wished they could go without a wallet, followed closely by the gym and while exercising (52%);
Canadians were also the most likely to wish they didn’t need their wallet at a bar, while Germans and Americans were most likely to wish they could attend concerts or sporting events wallet-free;
Canadians listed the Laundromat, grocery store and restaurants as places they wished they didn’t need to take their wallet with them.
What about you? Would you switch to a digital wallet?
