We have been talking about collectors taking payments via apps like Venmo and PayPal for quite a while now, and new data has been released showing just how much money consumers are storing in payment apps, be they for specific merchants (like Starbucks) or on general purpose apps. While we could turn the phrase “consumer preference” into a drinking game on webinars related to communication channels, the phrase is not used as profusely when it comes to discussing payment channels, and perhaps it needs to be.
Nearly 40% of consumers have money stored in general purpose apps like PayPal, and 76% of those consumers used those apps to send and receive money and 71% used them to buy goods or services online, according to the results of a recently released poll. Demographically, the numbers are pretty consistent across generations (with Baby Boomers being the one outlier that has yet to embrace these kinds of apps), whether the consumer makes more or less than $100,000 per year, and whether the consumer has a job or not.
Consumers actually trust PayPal to store their money in an app more than they trust their banks to store it, according to the survey. Consumers who use payment storing apps are more likely to spend than those who do not — about $300 per month more — and 80% of consumers who have used the apps are interested in using them again. Once consumers start using payment storing apps, their usage of the apps tends to “increase appreciably,” according to the report.
