Apple Pay promised to make plastic obsolete, but wary shoppers and confused clerks hinder adoption
“Nancy Schrum watched curiously as a colleague from her law firm waved an iPhone above a credit-card reader to buy a Subway sandwich with Apple Pay earlier this year,” Tripp Mickle reports for Dow Jones Newswires. “‘I have that, but I’m afraid to use it,’ said Ms. Schrum, who feared the technology wouldn’t work.”
“When Apple Inc. launched its mobile-payment service more than two years ago, it hoped to speed up the checkout process and, ultimately, to replace physical wallets for U.S. consumers,” Mickle reports. “Apple Pay has made significant headway, but Ms. Schrum’s wariness reflects a range of factors that analysts say have caused growth to undershoot their expectations, including security concerns about the service, retailers that don’t accept it, and Apple’s relatively paltry marketing.”
“The pace of Apple Pay adoption has been ‘disappointing even to conservative expectations,’ said Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, a venture-capital firm specializing in tech research,” Mickle reports. “Just 13% of the estimated 680 million iPhone users have used Apple Pay, according to the research firm.”
“Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president in charge of internet software and services, said the service has been adopted faster than other payment systems and he believes it will eventually replace cash, debit and credit cards as the primary payment system,” Mickle reports. “‘Does it matter if we get there in two years, three years [or] five years?’ Mr. Cue said in an interview. ‘Ultimately, no.'”
Just the type of A+ player Steve loved. Steve would be so proud.
And give Apple a break. How’s a company sitting on only $250 billion supposed to be able to properly market a new service?
As we’ve written many times, as recently as February: “There is no better way to pay than with Apple Watch and Apple Pay. Two simple things could turbocharge Apple Pay usage: Better (or actual) signage at the point of sale and incentives for using Apple Pay. Imagine Apple Pay usage if Apple simply offered $1 to spend at the Apple Store for every hundred spent via Apple Pay.”
But, of course, signs cost money and simple incentives require upper level executives to have a smidgen of imagination and foresight.
As we wrote last August, imagine at the special media event to introduce the next-gen iPhone, Apple CEO Tim Cook said something like this:
And, of course, the new iPhone works with Apple Pay and, starting today, for every $100 you spend using Apple Pay, you get $1 off at Apple retail and online stores. So, spend $100 on groceries using Apple Pay, you get $1. Spend $300 on a plane ticket using the Delta app, you get $3. Use Apple Pay in your ExxonMobil Speedpass+ app to buy your gas. It all adds up! By the end of the year, you’ll likely have quite a discount on your next iPad, Mac, or iPhone!
Would you use Apple Pay more if Tim Cook said something like that? We know we certainly would. So would tens of millions more people than are using Apple Pay today.
Apple, give us a reason to use Apple Pay beyond looking like tech dorks in front of the line at the register. What’s the incentive to use Apple Pay? There is none besides looking like a flaming nerd. As if Apple doesn’t have any money. That, inexplicably, is how they approach Apple Pay. Hello, Tim? Eddy? Talk to some people who actually go to stores and shop for things, please.
Incentivize its use! Give Apple Pay users a percentage of every dollar spent via Apple Pay to spend at Apple Stores. Something. Anything! Get people used to using it first. Sheesh. It’s really not that difficult. It really isn’t.
