More and more businesses are embracing mobile commerce as a mainstream part of their business, in spite of continued fears regarding fraudulent attacks, according to recent findings.
32% of businesses said that they saw viewed mobile commerce as significantly riskier than standard e-commerce, as a series of high-profile attacks and data thefts have made companies more aware of the risks surrounding online transactions.
This figure was an 8% rise results from last year’s global survey, as there are increasing signs that awareness of the risks involved in mobile commerce is growing, with 32% of businesses surveyed stating that they viewed fraud prevention specific to mobile as increasingly necessary, nearly double the percentage who said the same a year ago.
The same survey found that the proportion of individuals who believed that the standard e-commerce fraud processes are enough for managing the mobile channel fell to 26%, compared to 37% in last year’s survey said a report on Mobile Money Revolution.
Elsewhere, there were also encouraging signs for the mobile commerce sector as a whole, as 66% of businesses surveyed now actively supported mobile, representing a 30% increase from last year.
The number of businesses which offer a mobile app for online shopping more than doubled (from 21% to 54%); with just under half of businesses saying that they offered a dedicated mobile website.
Major retailers were more likely to provide dedicated mobile services, with more than 76% of businesses with annual revenues greater than $50 million doing so.
21% of all businesses surveyed said that they earned 20% or more of their business through the mobile sales channel — more than double the results from the previous year.
The results came from the second Mobile Payments and Fraud Survey, a joint enterprise from Kount, The Fraud Practice and CardNotPresent.com. It questioned nearly 2,000 participants, including merchants, service providers, acquirers, card associations and issuers.
"Not only are organizations now more likely to find that the fraud risk associated with the mobile channel is higher than with standard web e-commerce, but organizations are also more likely to believe the mobile channel requires additional tools for managing risk," David Montague, The Fraud Practice’s president and executive consultant, said in a statement.
"Merchants realize that fraud follows opportunity, and that there may be no greater opportunity for fraud today than in mobile," Don Bush, Kount’s vice president of marketing, added. "Protecting and growing your business requires a fraud solution that integrates with all mobile platforms without any impact on the customer experience or your business."