• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 25, 2015

Last week during Yahoo's developer's conference, Simon Khalaf, CEO of Flurry, a Yahoo company, called electronic payment services the last mile for mobile ecommerce.

Retailers, restaurants and banks are increasing their use of mobile payment services from companies like Apple, Google, PayPal,  and Samsung, but consumers are warming up to the idea slowly, according to a Placecast survey conducted online by Harris Poll in November 2014.

Overall, 31% of consumers participating in the survey have used a phone maker's mobile payment service, 33% said they have used a credit card company's, and 35% have used an Internet company's. Still 68% find it at least somewhat important to have the ability to make a purchase when they need to do so, even if it's on their smartphone.

Millennials like mobile commerce services the most, and males ages 18 to 34 are the strongest users of mobile payment technology.

Mobile payment services from Internet and phone manufacturers are the most popular. Some 36% of men said they used an Internet company's mobile payment service, compared with 18% of women. About 30% of men said they had used a phone maker's payment service, compared with 16% of women.

The biggest challenge becomes increasing the rate of use. Just 12% of smartphone owners using a phone maker's payment service use it regularly. Only 17% of smartphone owners who use a credit card company's payment service use it regularly. And just 17% of smartphone owners using an Internet company's mobile payment service use it regularly.

Awareness and use of mobile payments are significantly higher among those with a household income of more than $50,000.