Millennials want to use mobile cameras to do a lot more than take selfies

bizreport.com

New research into Millennials' obsession with the camera on their mobile device reveals that businesses, and especially banks, need to realize the big picture and implement more processes that require simply snapping a picture.

by Helen Leggatt

Mitek, a mobile imaging innovator for the financial industry, together with Zogby Analytics, have released the findings from a recent survey. The resulting report, 'Millennials, Selfies and the Changing Face of Mobile Commerce', reveals just how ingrained and widespread the use of the camera on their mobile devices is in their everyday lives.

And, frantic snapping with their mobile cameras is not just a fad, says James B DeBello, Mitek president and CEO.

"Millennials are telling us that this is how they want to bank, shop, find healthcare and enroll in classes," he said. "With an estimated 86 million Millennials, seven percent more than the baby-boom generation, that's a lot of spending power and too big of a market population to ignore."

One sector in which the use of pictures shows significant market opportunity is banking, found the survey. More than half of Millennials (54%) said they would deposit checks by taking an image and depositing it via a bank's app. A third (34%) have already done so.

Furthermore, 45% of Millennials would like to be able to pay a bill by taking a photo of it, while just 21% currently do so. Bill payments using images is, says Mitek, a huge market opportunity because 48% of Millennials are currently paying 1-3 paper bills a month and 19% paying 4-5.

"Business and banks especially need to offer or enhance their mobile capabilities for picture-based communication if they are going to remain relevant. Millennials and their mobile device cameras will ultimately change commerce from the written word, to a picture-based experience," said DeBello.

Other key findings from the survey concerning Millennials and images include:

- 1 in 3 would prefer that important processes in their lives, such as signing up for healthcare or enrolling in classes, could be done by taking a photo to auto-populate data rather than entering data manually;

- 41% would like more mobile imaging in retail;

- 35% would like more mobile imaging in insurance;

- 34% would like the credit card industry to adopt more uses for their mobile camera;

- 60% believe that within the next 5 years everything will be done on a mobile device.