Apple Says 35% of U.S. Merchants Accept Apple Pay

[MacRumors]

While speaking at the Code Conference today in San Francisco, Apple Pay vice president Jennifer Bailey announced that 35% of U.S. merchants now accept Apple Pay, reports The Verge. She said that only 4% of merchants accepted the payment option two years ago when it debuted.

Bailey says the new EMV chip cards are annoying customers and have helped drive adoption. "Once you figure out you have to chip, you wait a while, you wait awhile," she said before imitating the "BEEP" sound the chip reader makes when you can remove your card.

Apple won't be marketing Apple Pay to take advantage of the annoyance toward EMV chips, Bailey said, instead focusing on creating new partnerships with banks and merchants. "Knocking EMV is not necessarily the way to go," she said. "I think it's to increase acceptance and work with great partners."

The Cupertino company is also focusing on offering deals with retailers and banks. In November, Apple debuted exclusive holiday offers for those who use Apple Pay on the web. Promotions included one- or two-day free shipping with Adidas and 50% off a one-year subscription to The New York Times. Bailey notes that Apple has to work with partners for special offers because Apple doesn't collect transaction data, eliminating its ability to offer promotions by itself.

Bailey says that Apple is excited by the speed of the transition to contactless payments. However, Bailey says that the challenge for Apple is that they have to match the speed of the transition to EMV chip readers. Apple has to get retailers and merchants to adopt Apple Pay at the same time they adopt EMV chip readers so that consumers can more easily see the benefit of Apple Pay.

Bailey also teased what was next for Apple Pay, saying that the company is thinking about "everything in your wallet."

Article Link: Apple Says 35% of U.S. Merchants Accept Apple Pay

 

[garirry]

95% in Canada now, 94% in Canada when it launched. We've had EMV support for a while, and the cards work much better than they describe it by the way. It takes less than a second to do the beep most of the time. And it's rare you have to move it or whatever.

EDIT: I made a mistake and confused EMV with NFC contactless cards. What I mean to say is that we've had contactless here for a while. Though EMV isn't too bad, if I were to be honest.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Bailey also teased what was next for Apple Pay, saying that the company is thinking about "everything in your wallet."

An Apple Pay condom?

 

[tmiw]

In theory.

In reality, most of that 35% is small businesses who have the terminal out of view of customers and/or have no idea how to run a NFC transaction. As a result, "actual" acceptance is probably half that amount at best—unless you want to be the one telling the cashier how to use their own equipment. And it doesn’t help that only ~1% of people actually bothered to use it on Black Friday; otherwise small businesses might actually get themselves trained on it.

My prediction? Apple Pay is going to go down in history as something that revolutionized in-app and web-based payments, but will probably be meh at best for in-person stuff. (That's not to say that Apple Pay didn't help, mind you--merchant acceptance might still be stuck at 4% or less had Apple done so much as delay the US launch by a year or two.)

 

[Altis]

95% in Canada now, 94% in Canada when it launched. We've had EMV support for a while, and the cards work much better than they describe it by the way. It takes less than a second to do the beep most of the time. And it's rare you have to move it or whatever.

EMV is the chip and PIN. Are you not talking about contactless NFC cards that you just tap on the front of the terminal?

We use both all over here in Canada and NFC is far more convenient than the EMV chip.

 

[2010mini]

I have to say.... it is such a pleasure using Apple Pay over the new chip card terminals. Holy crap they are slow!

 

[tmiw]

95% in Canada now, 94% in Canada when it launched. We've had EMV support for a while, and the cards work much better than they describe it by the way. It takes less than a second to do the beep most of the time. And it's rare you have to move it or whatever.

I think a lot of the EMV hate is exaggerated, honestly; otherwise I'd expect way more use of the Pays than there has been. Samsung Pay, for instance, should have been killing it with their usage numbers by virtue of being able to be used even at places without NFC--yet they aren't doing much better than Apple.

That's not to say there aren't problems though. The rollout's been much slower than anyone wanted to expected, for one thing. Gas stations also got a reprieve until 2020 because there simply isn't enough compliant pump hardware available. I totally wouldn't be surprised if ~25-30% of stores simply never bother unless the government forces them to (or they otherwise lose the ability to process cards).

 

[justiny]

So she's going to give a quote knocking EMV chip cards and then say knocking EMV chip cards isn't "the way to go"?

 

[Junipr]

That's explosive growth for Apple Pay, however, Samsung Pay has been explosive too

 

[7thson]

Not in my podunk neck of the woods. Lack of knowledge of it in the stores that actually support it astounds me.
"Do you take ApplePay?"
"Huh? What's that?"
"Never mind, I'll just....yes, you do."
"Wow, that's cool!"
"Mmmhmm"
Still using a signature for verification, even with ApplePay sometimes. It's ridiculous, so I just draw a smiley face for a signature.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

95% in Canada now, 94% in Canada when it launched. We've had EMV support for a while, and the cards work much better than they describe it by the way. It takes less than a second to do the beep most of the time. And it's rare you have to move it or whatever.

It's simply a worse system than what we had with swiping. It demands a very specific set of actions from you done at specific times. It demands your attention at multiple steps.

We had reached the point with swiping where you could swipe the card at any time, even before the cashier had finished ringing up the order. Then you might have to sign when it's all done. Now it's wait for the prompts, try to find the stupid hole that's usually hidden on the edge of the POS, insert the card, get beeped at, wait for some other prompt, don't accidentally remove the card too soon, get beeped at, remove the card, sign.

It's BS.

 

[Pootmatoot]

I'd be interested in usage outside North America. Chip & PIN and tap cards have been ubiquitous for over a decade or more in so many Western countries the benefit isn't really there, compared to the leap if you were still using signatures (haven't seen that in 20 years in the UK).

 

[citysnaps]

This story personally resonated...

The EMV delay is real and super annoying. I use ApplePay whenever possible.

 

[Born Again]

Accept and Use are an entirely different thing.

Most people i know with iphones 6's and 7's don't have this set up.

Apple and merchants need to do a better job informing users.

 

[Karma*Police]

I've seen rapid adoption of Apple Pay recently, mostly due to merchants upgrading their credit card processing machines. My local pet store even promotes Apple Pay on their door now. I think in 3-5 years, it'll be more odd to see a merchant not supporting Apple Pay.

Eventually, even the big retailer holdouts like Wal-mart and Target will have no choice but to accept it; they're just delaying the inevitable.

 

[anzio]

It takes less than a second to do the beep most of the time. And it's rare you have to move it or whatever.

I think you may be referring to the NFC payment method, which is generally pretty reliable and yes, it does respond quickly. The article mentioned the increase in NFC adoption is due to the long entry time for chip based cards (EMV). They were saying it takes a while to enter your pin, etc and then wait for the "beep" to pull your card out.

 

[V.K.]

I find the 35% number hard to credit. I was in California January-May and there were only a couple of places where Apple Pay actually worked. CVS near my house had an NFC terminal but it was not operational. Most merchants didn't even have that much. Here in Canada NFC is ubiquitous and I rarely have to take out my credit card. It does happen in smaller shops and in restaurants. I think restaurants don't like NFC because there is no tip prompt when you tap. Or can the terminals be configured somehow to include a tip prompt and still use NFC? I don't think I've seen that.

 

[kstotlani]

It's simply a worse system than what we had with swiping. It demands a very specific set of actions from you done at specific times. It demands your attention at multiple steps.

We had reached the point with swiping where you could swipe the card at any time, even before the cashier had finished ringing up the order. Then you might have to sign when it's all done. Now it's wait for the prompts, try to find the stupid hole that's usually hidden on the edge of the POS, insert the card, get beeped at, wait for some other prompt, don't accidentally remove the card too soon, get beeped at, remove the card, sign.

It's BS.

I wonder what you do of that extra time saved.

 

[ipedro]

It's kind of incredible how the US is so behind on payments technology, with the most widespread method of payment being an easily cloned magnetic strip and still using god damn signatures to verify payment!

In Toronto, ApplePay is accepted at somewhere nearing 99% of merchants because most merchants that accept debit cards already have tap payments built into their debit terminals. I haven't touched cash or my debit card in months.

 

[Jakexb]

I have to say.... it is such a pleasure using Apple Pay over the new chip card terminals. Holy crap they are slow!

It is kind of crazy how "the future" as envisioned by banks is actually slower than what came before it -- either a chip that takes forever or an app with a QR code.

 

[sudo1996]

A few places are suddenly requiring that I use the EMV chips instead of just sliding my card, and it's freaking annoying how long it takes and how many steps there are. But most stick with the convenient card swipe.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I wonder what you do of that extra time saved.

It's not about saving small amounts of time. It's about watching what was a common everyday interaction made much worse and more annoying by badly designed technology. It's a regression in a world where things are only supposed to get better. I have no patience for people who derail discussions about bad technology on a technology board by screaming "first world problems".

 

[sudo1996]

It's simply a worse system than what we had with swiping. It demands a very specific set of actions from you done at specific times. It demands your attention at multiple steps.

We had reached the point with swiping where you could swipe the card at any time, even before the cashier had finished ringing up the order. Then you might have to sign when it's all done. Now it's wait for the prompts, try to find the stupid hole that's usually hidden on the edge of the POS, insert the card, get beeped at, wait for some other prompt, don't accidentally remove the card too soon, get beeped at, remove the card, sign.

It's BS.

Yeah, it sucks balls. I don't get why they made it so difficult. I don't even care if it's more secure at this point.
[doublepost=1481090856][/doublepost]

I find the 35% number hard to credit. I was in California January-May and there were only a couple of places where Apple Pay actually worked. CVS near my house had an NFC terminal but it was not operational. Most merchants didn't even have that much. Here in Canada NFC is ubiquitous and I rarely have to take out my credit card. It does happen in smaller shops and in restaurants. I think restaurants don't like NFC because there is no tip prompt when you tap. Or can the terminals be configured somehow to include a tip prompt and still use NFC? I don't think I've seen that.

I think the Square devices have a tip prompt. And yeah, I've never seen anything that takes Apple Pay besides Walgreens. Most places only take cash around here, LOL.

Anyway, I wish tips were just tips again, meaning optional and unexpected. Some companies try to offload their price to tips, and it's unethical. We once tried a grocery delivery service and stopped because they demanded a $50 "tip" on like $150 of items; apparently that's basically the workers' salary.

 

[avanpelt]

35% of all U.S. merchants accept Apple Pay? I don't buy that figure. Maybe 35% of all U.S. merchants have the ability to accept Apple Pay (as in, they have compatible equipment).

The big variable is whether the merchant has actually enabled NFC functionality on their POS equipment. I'm looking at you CVS, Kroger, Publix, Costco, and on, and on, and on. All of those places in my area have POS equipment that is capable of accepting NFC payments, but NFC has not been turned on for whatever reason.

The Costco near my house completely overhauled their gas pump POS equipment recently and it has the tap to pay/NFC logo right on the pump and the light is flashing inviting you to use NFC. Imagine my excitement when I tried to use my iPhone 6 to pay for gas for the first time ever. When my iPhone wasn't bringing up my debit card as it should've been, I tried using my Apple Watch. Nothing there, either. The Costco employee came over and asked me what I was doing. When I told him I was trying to use NFC, he said, "Oh yeah, we haven't turned that on yet and I'm not sure we're going to".

 

[dave2010]

Stopped carrying anything but my iPhone and swipe card for my front door. I realised today that I haven't taken money out of a machine for over 6 months, it's very convenient.