It also identifies the number one barrier to business growth is cash flow. mPOS solutions enable businesses to accept a card payment using a smartphone instead of a traditional fixed point-of-sale terminal.

The research is based on responses from more than 1,000 UK micro-businesses (businesses of between one and nine employees in size) including market traders, fast food outlets, independent retailers, and mobile caterers. The announcement corresponds with the launch of Kalixa Pro, a low cost small business payment solution that includes a mPOS product.

The need for mPOS
The research reveals that many micro-businesses identify cash flow (45%) as the number one barrier to growth. In addition, nearly half (48%) of micro-businesses surveyed miss sales or face delayed settlement, with one in ten saying they miss sales because they don't have the required payment capability. And more than half of respondents believe multi-channel payments will be important in the future.

Micro-businesses are looking to mPOS technology to help solve these challenges. 19% believe mPOS will help with cash flow and 17% expect it to remove payment issues. An encouraging 38% of respondents say they will adopt mPOS in the near future as long as their concerns are addressed. Given mPOS is a relatively new technology and micro-businesses are typically hard to reach, it is surprising that 47% of respondents correctly identified the actual definition of an mPOS.

Market adoption
Despite clear interest, understanding and awareness of mPOS, adoption remains exceptionally low. Just 2% of respondents currently use mPOS technology. One major reason is that current mPOS and POS offerings are too slow to settle payments and help businesses' improve cash flow. The majority of existing mPOS services takes between 7-10 days to settle payments.

The research also reveals that mPOS security (56%) and connectivity (29%) are major concerns among micro-businesses.