Forget the New iPhone – Apple Pay is the BIG Thing

Earlier I have overviewed the mobile payments industry (How Mobile Payments Are Doing?). It is necessary to stress once again that m-payments are dominated by 3 key players in the field – Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Apple’s digital payments system is currently leading the ecosystem, and it will soon have one major advantage over its competitors.

This month, as every year, Apple introduced the new iPhone 7. It is dominating the news with some improvements (most surprising one – no headphone jack) and managed to hit the pre-order sold out. However, there is one far more interesting thing about which Apple is not talking. This is the Apple Pay.

With the arrival of the new iPhone operating system iOS 10, Apple Pay now works inside web browsers. With soon to be released macOS Sierra, Apple Pay will cover the web on Macs as well as on the iPhones. This is a major shift not only for Apple’s digital payments service, but for the whole mobile infrastructure as well.

Apple Pay, according to the unofficial data compiled by Bloomberg, is the most popular mobile payment system in physical stores in the United States. This comes as a no surprise since it is a relatively easy way of paying for goods at a local grocery store or other physical shop. The only thing you have to do is to hold your phone to a reader, press your thumb to authorize the purchase and wait for the beep. As simple as that. Nevertheless, the thing is that paying with a payment card is not difficult either. If we would the consider contactless cards, it is probably even easier and faster.

The BIG thing with Apple Pay is that it is not only for the in-store payments – it is also a way for paying for things online. Since its introduction, it allowed you to pay for stuff inside apps, later it came to the brick-and-mortar stores, and now you can use it on the web too. And this brings us directly to the formation or rather development of the consumer habits. Once you have a single and simple way of paying for things in stores, within the apps and online, why bother yourself with anything more?

The introduction of the web in terms of the Apple Pay is particularly important to e-commerce and retail as such. As I have outlined previously (Online Shoppers – To Buy or Not To Buy?), at the moment, PC (desktop or laptop computer) is by far the most popular channel for buying online. Hence, Apple Pay’s presence is crucial here. Also, it solves one of the biggest problems in e-commerce – the conversion problem.

Surprisingly, even living in a digital age of ours, many shoppers most of the time still do not choose to proceed with the payment/purchase online. According to the data, conversion rates vary from 3 to 5 per cent(!) across different industries and markets, with the highest being recorded when buying on PCs. Therefore, Apple will strive to increase the rates significantly with its simple checkout with Apple Pay. And it has all the resources to do this: once you press the checkout button, the only thing left for you is to authorize the payment via your iPhone. All it takes is couple of seconds, and your favorite pair of sneakers or a book is being prepared for the shipment.

Of course, we have to mention that Apple Pay will work only on the Safari browser though (at least for the beginning), and if you are paying via desktop – you will have to have the Continuity feature enabled to hand the payment over to your mobile, tablet, or Apple Watch. Also, it will take time for the Apple Pay on the web to gain its momentum. Some companies have already announced partnering with Apple’s digital payments system, but one should not expect to have its favorite retailer ready in the upcoming weeks or months, especially if we are talking about the smaller ones.

Apple Pay is on the right track and might pave the way for a more rapid mobile payments adoption. It will definitely take time but it looks really promising.