UK consumers trust PayPal over banks for super app

The UK’s appetite for a super app is huge.

This claim emerges from a recent report by PYMNTS in partnership with PayPal titled “The Super App Shift: How Consumers Want To Save, Shop And Spend In The Connected Economy”.

The study, which is a survey of consumers in the US, Germany, Australia and the UK, found that 70% of consumers across the four countries were interested in such an app, with UK consumers showing the most interest.

Read the report: The Super App Shift: How consumers want to save, shop and spend in the connected economy

The questionnaire defined a super app as one that “provides an interface through which consumers can shop, order groceries, check social media, do banking, and so on—all within a single solution. It can help solve the decentralization problem of the current ecosystem and meet the universal desire of consumers for consistent, safe and smooth interactions in all pillars of their lives.”

Among the countries surveyed, the US leads the way in terms of the proportion of respondents who say they are very or extremely interested in a super app (44%). But when you include those who reported being interested in something or something, the UK tops the list with 74% of consumers reporting some level of interest in a super app.

Additionally, it was found that consumers in the UK have the highest number of connected devices, with an average of 5.5 devices. This confirms the findings of the PYMNTS report “Benchmarking the Digital Transformation”, which found that the UK has some of the highest rates of internet connection and smartphones in the world.

Continue reading: UK Leads Europe in Internet Access, Second in CE Index, Study Finds

So, with a digitally connected population and high demand for a marketplace for services and deals, the UK clearly offers tremendous opportunity for companies like PayPal to enter super app territory.

When asked who they would trust most to provide a super app, the UK was the only country surveyed where more people named PayPal as their most trusted provider than others who listed banks.

Still a long way

But while PayPal’s super app potential is strong in the UK, the company certainly has a long way to go if the bar for a super app is measured by how people in China use WeChat or how people in Southeast Asia use Grab .

More on this: Grab results show super apps prevail

For example, while PayPal’s Venmo product has a large presence in the American payments market, it’s not available in Europe. Instead, a variety of digital payment methods are in use and there is a high degree of variation from country to country.

However, as an e-commerce payment method, PayPal is well established in the UK, where it is the most popular digital wallet for online transactions, according to PYMNTS research.

Get the report: Benchmarking of the worldwide digital transformation

In addition, PayPal’s point-of-sale (POS) products, developed under the Zettle brand, are widely used in the country. And alongside the Netherlands and Sweden, the UK is one of the first markets where Zettle has launched its readerless POS solution, Tap-to-Pay.

More on this: UK SMEs are offering their customers the cheap, contactless payments they want

In a nation that clearly has an appetite for a unique portal offering a wide range of virtual products and services, PayPal is better positioned than others to become the UK’s favorite super app.

Whether that will be the case remains to be seen, but the stage is certainly set for Brits for greater app integration and the convenience of a single app serving a range of social and economic needs.

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