• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 9, 2013

People may be spending more by mobile, though slightly less of them seem to be doing it.

While the number of mobile purchases is falling, the value of individual purchases is going up.

The volume of purchases dropped from 70% of mobile users last year to 65% this year, according to the third annual MEF Global Consumer Survey, which surveyed mobile behavior in 13 countries.

However, while spending on low (under $15.99) and medium ($16 to $151) priced purchases went down, high spend purchases (more than $151) increased to 39% of purchases.

Leading the mobile spending are digital goods (42%) followed by a quarter of consumers buying physical and perishable goods across all 13 countries in the study.

It appears consumers are getting more comfortable buying things from their mobile devices.

For example, mobile travel bookings are expected to more than triple to $40 billion over the next two years, according to the new PhoCus Wright Global Edition report. Mobile travel bookings are expected to make up more than a quarter of the US online travel market in two years.

And consumers might spend even more once various issues are overcome.

The top barrier holding back mobile commerce for 40% of consumers is trust, according to the MEF study. After trust, the most significant impediments to purchasing are the lack of need to make a purchase (26%), network too slow (25%) and having to share too much personal information (16%).

Interestingly, having a bad experience may not be a significant deterrent, with fewer than one in 10 citing it as a barrier to making a mobile purchase. More people than that actually said they didn’t even know they could make a mobile purchase.

In the early days of mobile commerce, many viewed the idea of buying big-ticket items via mobile as somewhat farfetched. Not any more.