Small Business Owners Bullish on Growth of Mobile Payment Usage by 2018, Despite Slow Adoption Today

April 12, 2016

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ShopKeep, the cloud-based technology provider used by more than 22,000 retail shops, restaurants, and other independently-owned businesses, today announced the release of its bi-annual ShopKeep Small Business Index (SSBI). The SSBI, which draws insights gathered from a survey of 1,954 ShopKeep merchants reveals that 87% of ShopKeep merchants have seen little-to-no adoption of mobile payments at their business during the past six months. Despite these findings, 59% of small businesses still predict that in the next two years, 50% of consumers will be using mobile payments, such as Apple Pay, as their primary payment method.

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

The year-over-year data from more than 5,700 ShopKeep merchants identified additional notable findings, including:

• Positive growth within all business categories, including quick service restaurants, bars and retail shops with an average of a 15% increase in sales revenue.
• An 11% 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%.

Of the merchants participating in the SSBI, more than 50% of businesses are within their first three years of operations, with the majority of business owners ranging between 26 and 35 years of age. Over 60% of business owners obtained a Bachelor’s degree or higher, before going on to start their business. While 70% of merchants offer paid-time off for full-time employees, 27% reported taking zero days off a year, with an average of only five days of vacation.

“ShopKeep’s hard-working independent merchants make up the heart of the U.S. economy and it is encouraging to see our customers showing significant growth in revenue during the past year,” said Michael DeSimone, ShopKeep’s CEO. “At this early point in the adoption curve, it’s not surprising that we see relatively low take-up of new payment technologies. Like our customers, we fully expect to see a significant increase over the next two years as both consumers and merchants get more comfortable with different ways to pay.”