A qualitative study of consumer resistance to mobile payments for in-store purchases

Abstract Consumers are increasingly adopting and using mobile payments for person to person payments, in-store purchases, in-app purchases and online commerce. Nevertheless, adoption of technological innovations like mobile payments often require effort and learning by the consumer. In this study the objective was to identify potential barriers to a wider adoption of mobile in-store payments and fulfilled by using innovation resistance literature as a lens for analyzing qualitative interview data with non-adopters of mobile payments. The empirical findings indicate that perceived security and privacy risks, along with perceived risks of reliance on a mobile phone and lack of perceived relative advantage to other payment options, are critical obstacles in the adoption process. Other potential obstacles are: fragmentation of mobile payment options, consumers’ lack of knowledge on functionality, old habits, image of and potential risks relating to service providers and need of social approval.