Survey addresses consumers security concerns when holiday shopping online

Computop released the results of its 2016 Holiday Shopping Season study, in which it surveyed US and UK consumers about how they intended to shop in the holiday season, their preferred payment methods, and their security concerns when shopping online.

The web-based survey is based on 1,932 qualified responses (US: 1,037; UK: 895) between the ages of 18 and 60-plus.

In terms of online payment preferences, trusted payment methods differed slightly between US and UK respondents.

For instance, 59% of US consumers trust their credit card the most, followed by 35% opting for PayPal and 27% choosing to use their debit card. In addition, only 2.8% opted for ApplePay while almost 1% said they would use AndroidPay.

In comparison, 50% of UK consumers said they trust PayPal more, followed by credit card (38%) and debit card (33%). Only 1.4% of UK consumers said that ApplePay was the first choice for 1.4%, while 0.6% would be using AndroidPay.

Consumers are continually seeking faster and better methods of securing their online and mobile payment transactions, and for some, biometric technologies offer the best solution to make secure online purchases.

When asked which security authentication features they would consider using for online purchases in the next 12 months, 35% of shoppers chose fingerprint IDs, 12% selected retina scans, 7% opted for voice recognition and 2% said they would use face recognition.

Despite the high awareness of new biometric payment methods, many consumers said they have reservations about the use of advanced biometric identification technologies to authorize their online payments.

Overall, 56% of US and UK respondents said they think retailers already ask for too much personal information. Consumers seem to believe that concerns of identity theft control and privacy may outweigh any perceived benefits.

And although consumers acknowledge the appealing characteristics of biometric systems, widespread acceptance of biometrics for identification remains elusive.

A total of 41% of consumers said they did not plan to use any form of biometric authentication in the near future and just 3% had already set up a biometric ID with their banking or card provider.

Meanwhile, 19% of respondents felt the benefits outweighed the security risks when it came to sharing their biometric data for payment authentication, and 30% said they would prefer to use their banking PIN and TAN to authorize payments.

Respondents also expressed concerns that biometric data makes them more susceptible to digital identity theft, putting their personal and financial security at further risk.

Finally, 26% of respondents said they were concerned that their biometric data could be spoofed with 1% stating this had already happened to them.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  ecommerce  |  mobile payment  |  secure transactions