SMEs willing to adopt mobile payments despite impediments

ShopKeep, a cloud-based technology provider announced the release of its bi-annual ShopKeep Small Business Index which draws insights gathered from a survey of 1,954 ShopKeep merchants. The paper reveals that 87 percent of ShopKeep merchants have seen little-to-no adoption of mobile payments at their business during the past six months. Yet, despite these findings, 59 percent of small businesses still predict that in the next two years, 50 percent of consumers will be using mobile payments, such as Apple Pay, as their primary payment method.

The survey also showed that 88 percent of small business owners are confident in the current state of their business, which is an 8 percent decline from Q1 of 2015. Despite this drop in sentiment, 72 percent of merchants surveyed still reported an increase in revenue over the past six months, and 96 percent remain confident in the success of their business one year from now. As we head into the 2016 campaign season, 57.6 percent of respondents felt that the election would have no impact on the state of their business.

The year-over-year data identified additional notable findings, for example the positive growth within all business categories, including quick service restaurants, bars and retail shops with an average of a 15 percent increase in sales revenue.

Also, the report reveals an 11 percent increase in total number of sales transactions. Full-service restaurants and bars saw the greatest increase in revenue, with bars experiencing the largest jump from last year increasing by 47 percent.

ShopKeep is a cloud-based iPad point of sale (POS) system used by more than 22,000 retail shops, restaurants, and other independently owned businesses.