Transactions on mobile handsets and tablets will exceed those on PCs and laptops this year for the first time, according to a forecast by Juniper Research.

Total transactions across all devices, as well as contactless cards, will reach $4.7 trillion by 2019, a nearly doubling from $2.5 trillion this year.

While there is organic growth in overall transaction levels thanks to use of tablets and mobile handsets, a significant amount of tablet usage involves migration from the desktop.

Behind the growth story is, unsurprisingly, emerging markets such as China. Incredibly, Alibaba accounted for 20 per cent of total global B2C and C2C electronic retail activity in 2013.

Although certain markets such as Australia, Poland and the UK are seeing growth in contactless payments, consumers are mostly using debit and credit cards rather than mobile devices, said the report.

However, the report joins a chorus backing host card emulation (HCE) to boost NFC-based transactions because it enables banks to maintain full control of the customer.