Does Mobile Payment Make You Spend More?
(A2019-10070)

AUTHORS

Xingya Zhang, Shanghaitech University; Lifeng Yang, Shanghaitech University

KEYWORDS

Mobile payment; Consumer spending; Payment method

ABSTRACT

In this research, we analyse the incurrence of a popular Chinese mobile payment method (i.e.: Alipay) and its relationship to the aggregated consumer spending in one of the largest convenient store chains that primarily sells every day necessities in the city of Shanghai (i.e.: the second largest city in mainland China) and Taipei (i.e.: the largest city in Taiwan). Controlled for inflation, our data shows that the surge of collective consumer spending on everyday necessities highly correlates with the debut of mobile payment availability. A survey was subsequently conducted. Results show that the convenience of mobile payment reduces the sensitivity to the pay of payment, which leads to an increase of purchase on the everyday necessities. Implications and directions of future research are discussed.