Point-of-Sale Suppliers See Massive Increase in Retailer Interest Following Apple Pay Launch

A new report by The Wall Street Journal looks at the early performance of Apple's new electronic payments service, Apple Pay, finding strong signs of momentum behind the service. One of the key signs of interest in mobile payments comes from point-of-sales system suppliers seeing drastic increases in retailer interest following the launch of Apple Pay last October.

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Harbortouch has offered free wireless readers to its retailer clients since 2012, and in the month following the Apple Pay launch 68 percent of client orders asked for the readers supporting wireless payments. As of August of 2013, only 22 percent of its clients had installed such readers in their stores.

“It’s like night and day,” said Brendan Lauber, Harbortouch’s chief technology officer. “Now, merchants are actively coming to us and asking how to support this.”

The Wall Street Journal piece also covers the general surge in public acceptance for the service, remarking on recent stories that Apple Pay now supports cards representing about 90 percent of the credit card purchase volume in the United States, and that Apple's upcoming financial reports for the latest quarter may provide more details.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Tag: POS systems

Top Rated Comments

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Nicky G

58 months ago

Love using Apple Pay (woot Whole Foods!) and can't wait for CurrentC to utterly fall apart so those retailers who have gone out of their way to block wireless payments at terminals that do technically accept them can move on and support Apple Pay already!

Rating: 7 Votes

avanpelt

58 months ago

Apple Pay is a great idea, but will never dominate the market since they don't have the majority marketshare worldwide.

True, but Android does have majority market share worldwide and many Android handsets have supported NFC payments for years via Google Wallet. I don't care what NFC-compatible service customers are using on their devices (and retailers shouldn't care, either).

The retailers just need to buy NFC-capable POS units and deploy them with the NFC functionality turned on. Apple Pay is the best thing that could've happened for Google Wallet in terms of helping bring NFC payments more into the mainstream.

Rating: 4 Votes

Robert.Walter

58 months ago

This would be a good use of ibeacons; they could announce to user that apple pay was accepted in store.

I just wish some of the laggards like costco and Kroger would add apple pay functionality to their pos systems.

Rating: 4 Votes

Karma*Police

58 months ago

After my Amex got hacked I now use Apple Pay whenever it's available and often seek out merchants that support Apple Pay.

Rating: 3 Votes

extricated

58 months ago

I'm convinced that Apple Pay is one of the best moves Apple has made in awhile. As more people phase out their old iPhones (me included), this will continue to grow by leaps and bounds. Not to mention the upcoming Apple Watch - which will put this tech on the wrists of ... well, who knows how many?

Rating: 3 Votes

nagromme

58 months ago

Maybe Apple should give away nice, distinctive free sticky-badges that say "Apple Pay is accepted where NFC is available," and show the NFC logo. It would let stores claim ApplePay support AND educate people on how to recognize other ApplePay-ready locations, that may not even realize their system supports it.

(http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/973837)

Rating: 3 Votes

2457282

58 months ago

I have yet to see anyone but myself use Apple Pay or Google Wallet. I love using both and do every time I can but I'd to see one other person use them as well.

Come over and you can see me use Apple Pay, but not goggle wallet.

Rating: 2 Votes

wannabefanboy

58 months ago

Come to the UK already!

Rating: 2 Votes

Iconoclysm

58 months ago

Apple Pay is a great idea, but will never dominate the market since they don't have the majority marketshare worldwide. I use it as much as I can and it frustrates me when I see NFC terminals that are there, but don't work. Whataburger and McGovern Centennial Gardens (although to be fair it does say disabled) here in Houston are the biggest offenders. Oddly enough, my apartment complex has a vending machine that uses NFC and it works great.

I wouldn't be so quick to assume that OS marketshare means more NFC enabled hardware that will be used. Combined with Apple Watch, it's really difficult to say. Also remember that for either of these systems to "dominate", the one that has the most consumer money flowing through is the winner. Judging from App Store purchases and whatnot, Apple is certainly not out of the race.

The strangest thing I've paid for with Apple Pay so far is an air pump that charged $1.50 to fill my tires at a gas station. Worked flawlessly.

Rating: 2 Votes

Harmonious Zen

58 months ago

Do the Kroger's have the Verifone MX915 (black shiny and comes with Contactless on by default) or the MX870( grey old ones). So I asked Kroger about Apple Pay and they said they were evaluating Contactless payments still and they said a few of their stores do accept them. I'm sure they will feel the pressure at some point and choose to turn it on, especially since most Kroger's already have MX915 terminals. To find what what places accept Apple Pay use this site: http://www.mastercard.us/cardholder-services/paypass-locator.html is helpful or you can use the MC nearby app on your phone which ties to that same online Paypass database. There is also this MR thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1806254 I bet there are many ma and pa places to use it as well, which is fun to find and use it there. For example, I see that a The Fresh Market in Houston is on the Paypass locator, 5016 San Felipe ST Houston, TX 77056.

I think a lot of stores that say at a corporate level that they're testing ApplePay hadn't actually communicated that most of the employees. Most places I go no one has even heard of ApplePay.

Rating: 1 Votes

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