Profiling the Users of Mobile Payments in Belgium: A Study Exploring Socio-demographics, Social Media Usage, and General Impulsive Buying Tendency

A great deal of research has been carried out on adoption of mobile payments, focusing on user intentions. However, little is known about the actual users and what circumstances trigger mobile payment. Mobile payment is of particular interest to retailers, as it can facilitate and thus encourage finalization of the sales transaction. In this Belgian study (N = 1792, average age = 44.3, SD = 13.3, 49% female), we take a closer look at the profile of mobile payers in terms of their socio-demographics, frequency of patronizing convenience retail channels, and social media usage, and their underlying general impulsive buying tendency before and during the COVID-19 crisis. We observed a clear uplift in users between 2019 and 2020. We further find a higher occurrence of mobile payers among younger ages and those with a higher socio-economic profile. The link between internet/online shoppers and mobile payment adoption seems to be firmly established. Our data also indicate a higher incidence of mobile payment among petrol station shoppers but not for vending or newsagent shoppers, indicating that certain convenience stores seem more suitable contexts for using mobile payments than others. Furthermore, a clear positive association was observed between general impulse buying tendency and mobile payment incidence. Finally, higher mobile payment incidences can be found amongst Facebook and Instagram users, but not amongst Twitter and YouTube users. Understanding these differences can help retailers set their digital and commercial agendas and researchers in the field of mobile payment adoption to select appropriate moderators for their models.