More than one in four of U.S. and Western European mobile phone users will use their NFC-enabled mobile phone to pay for goods in-store by 2017, compared to less than two percent in 2012, according to a report from Juniper Research.
Retailers, operators and financiers are now becoming wise to the consumer appetite for mobile wallets and the ease of use that comes from tap-to-pay methods.
Businesses are advised to provide a dedicated customer care platform to achieve optimum results, offering around the clock support to appease hesitant consumers.
"In 2011 we saw significant strides made within the ecosystem such as the launch of Google Wallet, the announcements of more mobile wallet consortia and the supply of an increasing number of NFC-enabled smartphone models,” said Dr Windsor Holden, co-report author. "NFC is now impacting the public consciousness and we expect a rapid market expansion from 2012 onwards."
By 2017, the report forecasts the global value of NFC mPayments to exceed $180B.
The report also says that NFC retail payments services must be deployed with a fully integrated and tested customer care channel if they are to truly take off. If a single point of contact to resolve users' problem quickly and proficiently isn’t in place, users will leave the service.
This analysis contrasts significantly with a report issued by Gartner that predicts that take-up for NFC mobile payments would remain low until after 2015, completely opposite of what Juniper Research is saying.
According to Gartner research director Sandy Shen, mobile payments are set to top $171 billion this year, a sixty percent jump over last year’s numbers, which totaled roughly $105 billion, Gartner said.
According to Gartner, Web access will account for about 88 percent of all transactions in North America, and about 80 percent in Western Europe, by 2016. NFC transactions will remain relatively low through 2015, but growth is forecast to start picking up from 2016.
Edited by
Brooke Neuman 
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