You won’t need your wallet to go shopping on Britain’s High Streets in 2016, according to a new report by PayPal. Money: The Digital Tipping Point says that 2016 will be the year when UK shoppers will be able to use their mobile phones to pay for things in-store with digital money rather than cash, cheques or cards.

PayPal’s findings are based on a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on PayPal’s behalf consisting of interviews with 10 senior executives from major UK retailers and other businesses, representing a combined 2010 turnover of £85 billion.

Forty-five million Britons use a mobile phone and 49 per cent of mobile buyers surveyed by Forrester Consulting use their mobile phones to purchase products at least once every three months.

Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK said: “We’ll see a huge change over the next few years in the way we shop and pay for things. By 2016, you’ll be able to leave your wallet at home and use your mobile as the 21st century digital wallet. Our vision of money is to enable you to pay for something from wherever you are, whatever device you’re on – a PC, mobile phone, tablet, games console and a whole lot more.

“2016 will mark the real start of money’s digital switchover in the UK. We’re not saying cash will disappear entirely, but we’ll increasingly use our phones and other devices rather than our wallets to pay in-store as well as online.

“The lines between the online world and high street will soon disappear altogether. Children born today will become the UK’s first ‘cashless generation’. It will be completely natural for them to pay by mobile.

“PayPal’s vision is a one-stop shop for retailers to engage their customers directly during every part of the shopping lifecycle – generating demand from consumers through location-based offers, making payments accessible from any device, not just from the mobile phone, and offering more flexibility to customers even after they’ve checked out.”

As well as paying for goods without having to queue, the report reveals shoppers can look forward to being able to carry digital loyalty cards, promotional offers and receipts on their phones – keeping everything in one place creating a virtual shopping hub.

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