US Online Bill Payment Forecast: 2009 To 2014

Forrester predicts that online bill pay adoption will grow slowly but steadily over the next five years. That will raise the total number of US online bill payment households from 48 million to 66 million by 2014. Much of this growth depends on new Gen Y users (ages 18 to 29) paying bills online for the first time. Turning these customers from casual users to avid fans will require bank eBusiness managers to focus on more than just the basic bill pay issues of usability and payment flexibility. They need to integrate bill pay functionality with new features desired by this generation to give them better control over their finances, like mobile access and cross-channel alerts. If banks fail to connect on these broader contexts, they may find their Gen Y customers just as happy to continue using the biller direct sites that have met their needs well thus far.