Are our mobile phones making us spend more?

The mobile phone; that small device you have on you in your pocket all day, or perhaps you are holding it in your hand right now as your read this, has become an increasing focus in the marketing world over the years. It is all about the ‘fourth screen’. This will only continue and increase in advertising and marketing, as technology further develops in the future.

Mobile marketing is the two-way or multi-way communication and promotion of an offer between a firm and its customers using a mobile medium, device, or technology. The ‘fourth screen’ refers to a small portable video screen such as a mobile phone or portable media player. The ‘fourth screen’ ultimately enables mobile marketing to exist.

Considering more Australians own a smartphone (87%) than a laptop (76%), this type of marketing has been particularly successful and utilised by many brands and companies as it is personal to the individual user, its interactive, extremely time relevant and its also location independent, meaning organisations are able to target the appropriate audience and have the best chance at capturing that market segment.

But what is so attractive to us about our mobile phones, that we can’t seem to get enough? They enable us to contact people via text, email, call etc., we can listen to music from them, film videos, use the internet, and even use them to make payments for goods and services with mobile wallets, available on every smart phone. They are quick at processing what we want them to do, but most of all, they are extremely convenient. We can carry less and use more!

I, myself was, and as I am sure many others have been and maybe still are, a big fan of the mobile wallet, that so many of us now use. Why carry around a bulky wallet, when you could simply tap your phone at the checkout? In 2017, Mobile Payment platform, Android Pay, was being used by 24 million, Apple Pay by 87 million and Paypal by 210 million. Countries such as China and Norway are among the biggest mobile wallet users with a 47% and 42% per cent usage rate.

Even though proven to be convenient, more and more consumers have admitted that they spend more money when using mobile wallets. According to this article, mobile payment users tend to spend TWICE as much across all digital channels, than those who don't use mobile payment. I, too, have fallen victim to this. Working in retail, you are often faced with the temptation of purchasing the products you sell. I found when I was using Apple Pay (I have since removed my card from the ‘wallet’ app), I found I was spending carelessly as the purchase process is so quick, it doesn't actually feel as though you are spending real money… until you check your account! Safe to say I leant a very expensive lesson.

Taking this into account, it is not hard to understand why so many organisations invest into mobile marketing nowadays, instead of investing millions on television commercials . And why wouldn't they, when people are going to spending more on their products?

Have you also had an experience with mobile wallets that lead to more spending or impulse purchases? Let me know in the comments :)