Apple Pay Overtakes Starbucks as Most Popular Mobile Payment Platform in the US

[MacRumors]

Apple Pay has overtaken the Starbucks mobile app to become the most popular mobile payment system in the United States, claims a new report out today.

According to eMarketer, Apple Pay became the market leader last year, when 27.7 million Americans used the app to make a purchase. Since then, however, Apple Pay has grown even faster than expected.

In 2019, Apple Pay will have 30.3 million users, or 47.3 percent of mobile payment users. That compares with Starbucks' 25.2 million customers via its mobile app in the same year, representing 39.4 percent of mobile payment users.

"Apple Pay has benefited from the spread of new point-of-sale (POS) systems that work with the NFC signals Apple Pay runs on," said eMarketer principal analyst Yory Wurmser. "The same trend should also help Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but they will continue to split the Android market."

Citing data from Digital Trends, the analysis predicts Apple Pay will be available in 70 percent of U.S. retailers by the end of 2019. In contrast, the Starbucks app has commanded a 40 percent market share of mobile payments for the last few years, but growth potential is limited because it can only be used in Starbucks stores.

Total spending via contactless mobile payments will approach $100 billion this year in the U.S., according to eMarketer. On average, that is equivalent to a user spending $1,545 per year, up more than 24 percent over last year.

Nearly 64 million people (30 percent of all U.S. smartphone users) are expected to make use of mobile payments this year, a 9.1 percent increase over 2018. In terms of demographics, nearly 50 percent of all smartphone users are adults aged 25 to 34, so the growth of mobile payments is expected to be strongest in this age group, although digital wallet use is said to be growing across the board.

"Although a growing number of millennials feel secure using payment apps, virtually all still find credit and debit cards equally convenient," said eMarketer forecasting analyst Vincent Yip. That bodes well for Apple Card, which launched earlier this year. Apple Pay is now in 47 markets and in the June quarter, started adding more new users than PayPal, with monthly transaction volume growing four times as fast.

Article Link: Apple Pay Overtakes Starbucks as Most Popular Mobile Payment Platform in the US

 

[needfx]

Too bad it’s a credit card, I would defintely indulge in prepaid debit or something
Cause: 24% more spending YoY

 

[swingerofbirch]

That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.
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Too bad it’s a credit card, I would defintely indulge in prepaid debit or something
Cause: 24% more spending YoY

I don't think they're referring to Apple Card but to Apple Pay which you can use with virtually any payment method like a debit card or Apple's own Apple Cash.

 

[needfx]

That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.

Baby wins
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That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.
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I don't think they're referring to Apple Card but to Apple Pay which you can use with virtually any payment method like a debit card or Apple's own Apple Cash.

Yes correct, mybad

 

[NachoGrande]

That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.
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I don't think they're referring to Apple Card but to Apple Pay which you can use with virtually any payment method like a debit card or Apple's own Apple Cash.

Thought the same thing. comparing one store to a payment system used everywhere and it just beat it.... yikes. I try to use Apple pay everywhere, but it's still kind of awkward. Hopefully it gets better.

 

[OneMike]

Interesting. I didn’t know that Starbucks had a system.

 

[JohnApples]

That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.
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I don't think they're referring to Apple Card but to Apple Pay which you can use with virtually any payment method like a debit card or Apple's own Apple Cash.

Well, the article states that 47.3% of people are using ApplePay this year, which is nearly half of all users that use any mobile payment option at all. That’s a pretty darn good statistic, especially considering that ApplePay is only available on iPhones.

Starbucks allegedly is used by 39.4% of mobile payment users, so ApplePay is decently ahead of them. Again, consider that Starbucks mobile pay can be used on any smartphone.

Being the number 1 mobile payment solution *and* Having an almost 10% lead over the second-place solution while also only being limited to around 22% of the smartphone market share is pretty impressive.

 

[69Mustang]

Yaaaaaay! Let's celebrate! Woohoo! This is great!
-Poe

 

[joelhinch]

You can use Apple Pay or any other contactless technology at 99.9% of payment terminals in Australia. Essentially all stores, restaurants and cafes. Even trains and busses. How contactless payments are still niche in the US is crazy to think.

 

[dantroline]

That seems like a weird comparison to make, but as long as it has been made, it actually to me makes Apple Pay sound less popular than I would have guessed.

If I understand this right, only slightly more people use Apple Pay, which is a way of using almost any credit card for any purchase at any location, than use the Starbucks mobile order app at Starbucks cafes.

That means out of the virtually endless places you could use Apple Pay, about the same number use the Starbucks mobile app to pay at a single store.

I don't see that as a winning statistic.
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I don't think they're referring to Apple Card but to Apple Pay which you can use with virtually any payment method like a debit card or Apple's own Apple Cash.

People will use whatever Pay thing their phone or watch provides. They are all practically identical and the innovation is over more or less. Market penetration at this point will reflect device market share as eg: Google Pay, or Samsung Pay or Apple Pay are all compliant with the same requirements the banks require and so usability is about the same.

 

[MacGizmo]

I just don't understand how they come up with the 70% of retailers statistic. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA), one of the largest cities in the country... Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

Thank god BevMo accepts Apple Pay, or I would have to move!

 

[Lalatoon]

I'm a am confused here... comparing Apple Pay to Starbucks. We should expect Apple Pay to have more users since it is used to purchased virtually anything and to compare that to a system that is only used to purchase from one store is a little bit confusing for me. I am not good with statistics but i don't see any correlation here.

Well, it shows how successful Starbucks is, we do love coffee.

 

[QquegChristian]

What a horrible milestone. I want to use Apple Pay 100% of the time on my watch. I want to say good riddance to chip cards at a time when chip cards are absolutely slowing down all transactions in all stores.

But to this date, Apple Pay has still ever only worked for me correctly in Walgreens and airport newsstands. These are the only stores that don’t require a pin.

70% of the time I can’t even use it at all. I’d like to see some laws requiring all digital payments to be accepted whenever a store tries to do ANYthing related to digital payments or rewards programs.

 

[bpp85]

I just don't understand how they come up with the 70% of retailers statistic. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA), one of the largest cities in the country... Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

Thank god BevMo accepts Apple Pay, or I would have to move!

I don't understand this. Does Apple Pay have to be individually accepted by a store in the US? In Europe you can use Apple Pay anywhere where there is a contactless option, which is almost everywhere...

 

[QquegChristian]

I just don't understand how they come up with the 70% of retailers statistic. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA), one of the largest cities in the country... Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

Thank god BevMo accepts Apple Pay, or I would have to move!

Exactly...I’d say 90% of my transactions are with Publix, Walmart, Target, and gas stations that all don’t accept Apple Pay. I’m conditioned to not even TRY at new stores.

 

[deeddawg]

I don't understand this. Does Apple Pay have to be individually accepted by a store in the US? In Europe you can use Apple Pay anywhere where there is a contactless option, which is almost everywhere...

Generally I find that if the terminal accepts contactless payments, it will work with Apple Pay here in the US.

However - a surprisingly number of large retailers have yet to deploy/enable contactless payment capability.

In contrast many smaller chains and many/most independent retailers enabled contactless when they moved over to chip-enabled readers.

There's also the factor that several large retailers decided to back their own payment system which involves scanning a QR code. So they have no inventive to enable contactless payments even though the equipment supports it. See https://www.cultofmac.com/295777/walmart-best-buy-arent-backing-apple-pay/

 

[QquegChristian]

I don't understand this. Does Apple Pay have to be individually accepted by a store in the US? In Europe you can use Apple Pay anywhere where there is a contactless option, which is almost everywhere...

Most of our stores fall into several categories.

1. Old machines with no contactless.
2. Has contactless but isn’t turned on.
3. Has a proprietary payment system to lock out Apple (WalMart).
4. Who knows, so why embarrass yourself trying?

 

[nonpensavo]

When ApplePay / AppleCard will come to other countries?~ Too bad most services are ~US only

 

[nikaru]

I just don't understand how they come up with the 70% of retailers statistic. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA), one of the largest cities in the country... Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

Thank god BevMo accepts Apple Pay, or I would have to move!

What do you mean by accept Apple Pay? If you mean paying your purchases by touching the POS terminal with your phone, you can always do it, as long as the POS terminal accepts NFC payments of any type, which is a standard now. I live in Madrid, Spain and have been using it for year or so for virtually all physicial purchases that accept credit/debti card payment. Usually the POS terminal is compatible with NFC, and therefore Apple Pay payment are autorized as usual. Maybe Im missing something.

 

[Sasparilla]

Wonderful to see. Using Apple Pay everywhere I can here in the U.S.. It's definitely much easier to use (most places) these days.

Exactly...I’d say 90% of my transactions are with Publix, Walmart, Target, and gas stations that all don’t accept Apple Pay. I’m conditioned to not even TRY at new stores.

They just keep falling gradually, thankfully for you Target has been accepting it for much of the year. My local BP just added at pump terminals that it works with now (finally), but alot of others you have to walk inside to use Apple Pay.

 

[AustinIllini]

I just don't understand how they come up with the 70% of retailers statistic. I live in Phoenix, AZ (USA), one of the largest cities in the country... Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

Thank god BevMo accepts Apple Pay, or I would have to move!

Phoenix is a large city, so your sample size of the city, let alone the state or the country, is not representative of actual Apple Pay adoption.

You forgot Walgreens and CVS. And Apple Stores. So yeah, small businesses aren't quite there yet but there are several major companies with multiple locations accepting Apple Pay.

 

[nikaru]

Most of our stores fall into several categories.

1. Old machines with no contactless.
2. Has contactless but isn’t turned on.
3. Has a proprietary payment system to lock out Apple (WalMart).
4. Who knows, so why embarrass yourself trying?

Well, thats odd. I have always been wondering why the US is virtually 10 years behind other countries in this regard. In Europe, the contactless payment was introduced several years ago. Actually, I had my first credit card with a chip instead of magnetic stripe some 10 years ago. In China for example, there is currently no need of POS terminals at all as virtually everything can be paid with WeChat.
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Phoenix is a large city, so your sample size of the city, let alone the state or the country, is not representative of actual Apple Pay adoption.

You forgot Walgreens and CVS. And Apple Stores. So yeah, small businesses aren't quite there yet but there are several major companies with multiple locations accepting Apple Pay.

Well, small business just need to purchase a POS terminal that is not 10 years old. Not really expensive or difficult to implement.

 

[whoknows2597]

Exactly...I’d say 90% of my transactions are with Publix, Walmart, Target, and gas stations that all don’t accept Apple Pay. I’m conditioned to not even TRY at new stores.

My local Target accepts Apple Pay at POS. Perhaps the one that you go to didn’t update their terminals for contactless payments. Apple Pay will be processed under the “Credit/Debit Card” option on the terminal.

 

[deeddawg]

But to this date, Apple Pay has still ever only worked for me correctly in Walgreens and airport newsstands. These are the only stores that don’t require a pin.

Apple Pay is nowhere to be found, in comparison to places that don't have it. Yeah, McDonald's, Whole Foods, Starbucks, random other coffee shops. That's about it. No gas stations, no grocery stores (beyond Whole Foods), no Walmart, no Target, very few stores in malls.

I use ApplePay regularly at Sprouts, TraderJoes, WholeFoods, DicksSportingGoods, AcademySports, BassPro/Cabelas, QuikTrip gas station (inside only though), Costco, a local independent grocery store, local liquor store, many other places.

Can't use it at Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Home Depot, Sams, or Lowes though.

 

[wwchris]

I really think the cash back on the Credit Card (and Apple Pay via the card) will start to drive a lot more use this year. I think their 2020 estimate for users it wat too low. Large scale usage will also force retailers to start to open up their systems from a customer service perspective.

The worst thing that ever happened was the CurrenC consortium of companies who agreed to do their own payment system and all agreed to lock out other vendors like ApplePay. Once that collapsed, those retailers are starting to open their systems back up but it has been slow.

As for Starbucks, the reason their epayments are so big is because it allows you to store gift cards and use them via electronic pay, it allows you to order ahead and skip the line, it allows you to automatically add credits to your accounts on a weekly basis and they offer rewards like free coffee after a certain number of purchases. To put it in perspective, one report I saw said they have 23 million electronic users PER MONTH. That is 1 in 16 people in the US using Starbucks electronic pay per month. Show how much Americans love their coffee.