With Apple Pay’s launch earlier in October 2014, the mobile payments industry received a flurry of attention. Continuing to go wireless and paperless, the mobile payments method is catching on with many merchants and customers. Interestingly, when Apple Pay joined the market they did not introduce any revolutionary payment system to the market, rather they seemed to find themselves in the existing payments ecosystem.
Its still not clear to many what Apple Pay offers and this may be the reason why it hasn’t been getting more attention after the initial release. Apple Pay is a digital technology working with major card networks and banks to get their cards onto Apple mobile devices for in-store and on-line payments, similar to PayPal. A couple of the differences Apple Pay features is the Near Field Communication (NFC) and TouchID, all with the security backed by Apple. These 3 features enable in-store NFC payments and enable secure online payments. Apple focuses on simple customer experience and has already succeeded where many in the industry have failed.
The customer uses frictionless registration with cards added through Passbook, iTunes account, or by taking a photo of their card. The iPhone 6 displays all the cards in the NFC payment terminal and completing a payment can be done simply by touching the home button for fingerprint verification by TouchID. As for online payments, it can be made using their one-touch method with transaction authorized by using TouchID.
With Apple and all the new payment methods underway, reports found that consumers are not aware or familiar of how it works. Many are concerned about NFC payment security while the majority are still satisfied with their current payment methods.
Adoption and compliance with the mobile payment system will take time and this will be a great time to flatten out any issues as they sign on more retailers and merchants. Mobile payments are heading in an upwards direction, and Emerchantbroker.com can help set you up with a high risk merchant account so you can start accepting credit and debit card payments. E-commerce is the primary choice for shopping and a merchant account is necessary for digital transactions.
Apple Pay has helped the already established mobile payments market to regain interest in NFC mobile payments. As Apple continues to support the banks and major card companies, we will see more sales volume in e-commerce and m-commerce.