“The Super App Shift: How Consumers Want To Save, Shop And Spend In The Connected Economy,” a report recently published by PYMNTS, defines a “super app” as one providing “a user interface through which consumers can shop, order food, check social media, bank and so on — all within a single solution.”
The report, published in collaboration with PayPal and based on a survey of close to 10,000 consumers in Australia, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S., examined how consumer preferences for streamlined payment experiences is driving interest in a super app to manage different aspects of everyday life, from health, wellness and entertainment to retail purchases and travel.
Read the report: The Super App Shift: How Consumers Want To Save, Shop And Spend In The Connected Economy
When it comes to lifestyle personas, the study revealed that convenience-seekers, half of which are millennials, indicate an extreme interest in wanting all areas integrated into a connected app — higher than all other personas, including commerce-seekers and financial-wellness seekers.
In fact, 95% of convenience-seekers reported they would integrate their financial data into a super app, while 97% would be open to creating digital connections through a super app to send and receive payments.
In Germany, a significant number of consumers in this convenience persona (76%) said they are interested in using super apps to manage interactions with family, friends or romantic partners, one of the 11 areas of their lives consumers would like to see integrated into a super app.
But while this is quite high, overall consumers in Germany tend to be most skeptical of a super app than any of the other countries studied. The data shows that just one-quarter of the country’s consumers believe the advantages of a super app would be worth the risk of revealing their personal information, for example.
While there was a universal concern across countries — “very worried” — around data security and being hacked when using a super app (45%), as well as the amount of data they would have to share to access super app features (38%), 5% more German consumers showed concern than other groups surveyed.
Other worries identified as potentially inhibiting super app adoption include concerns around high cost, worse level of service and super apps not providing access to the desired products and services.
The Germany results are not surprising and could likely stem from local consumers’ preference for cash, which tends to be higher than other countries in Europe.
Related: Could Super App Users Spell the End of Germany’s Cash-Heavy Retail Economy?
For example, a 2020 European Central Bank report found that physical euros accounted for 51% of the value of transactions at the point of sale, compared to just 22% in the Netherlands and 24% in Luxembourg.
See also: In Germany, Cold Hard Cash Still the Way to Pay
Results from a recent PYMNTS study, “Benchmarking the World’s Digital Transformation,” also align with these findings. Germans’ preference for cash is higher than any of the eleven other countries studied, including five from Europe, with cash or check used in 37.9% of all reported transactions.
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