Small Businesses Say Customers Want To Pay With Their Smartphones

Small businesses may not always be at the forefront when it comes to technology, but when it comes to how its customers pay, most are on board when it comes to mobile payments.

That’s according to a new survey commissioned by Samsung Electronics America and conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which found the majority of small businesses polled said customers want to pay with their smartphones and they expect the use of mobile payments to grow.

The survey of small businesses across the country also revealed that 90 percent see mobile payments as a competitive advantage, while 89 percent expect more of their customers to use mobile payments in the future and 84 percent of survey respondents said customers increasingly want to use mobile devices to pay for services, as well as products.

The support on the part of small businesses bodes well for the mobile payment industry, but the survey did have one caveat: The majority of small business owners are concerned about the current state of the mobile payments infrastructure, with 81 percent concerned about the cost of upgrading their payment system. The survey found only 59 percent of small business owners had payment terminals that allow NFC payments. The survey respondents pointed to Samsung Pay as a convenient way to accept mobile payments since the service supports both NFC terminals and MST. Of the small businesses that took part in the survey, 91 percent said they had heard of Samsung Pay, while 68 percent said they have customers who have used Samsung Pay. An overwhelming 96 percent cited ease of use when it comes to Samsung Pay, and 93 percent found transactions were completed quickly with Samsung Pay. Finally, the survey found that nearly all small business owners (95 percent) said using Samsung Pay to complete a transaction was the idea of the customer.