Apple Pay came out in the market last year in October and received pessimistic review from consumers. Surely, the mobile payment system, which was launched by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with much enthusiasm, met with grave scenarios right after its entrance in to the market. In the month of its launched, the mobile payment service was ditched by some major retail chains in the US due to technical reasons. This abandonment took its toll on the mobile payment service, which was immediately written off by industry analysts who doomed it to the same fate that was met by a similar mobile payment service launched by Google Inc. in 2011, Google Wallet.
However, it has been 4 months since the launch of the Apple Pay service, and the position of Apple Pay in the market seems to be much better than was anticipated in the month of its release. Surely, after the release of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the use of the Apple Pay service in retail outlets has surely improved drastically. The number of users who seem to have adopted the service as their primary mode of payment in retail stores which accept the payment service has increased dramatically, leaving more room for analysts to reconsider Apple Pay’s role in the market as a payment method worthy of attention.
But perhaps purchases in retail stores using Apple Pay is not the most popular use of the service. According to statistics, Apple Pay is being used by users of Apple devices mostly for the purchase of online apps and merchandise, just like they would use PayPal. According to the company SeatGeek, which sells concert tickets to users through its mobile app, available at the Apple App Store, only 30% of its checkouts actually materialized before the advent of Apple Pay mobile payment system. However, after Apple Pay was integrated into the system as another mode of payment, over 80% of the checkouts now monetize due to the facility of the Apple Pay payment system.
According to Jack Groetzinger, who is the co-founder of SeatGeek, Apple Pay is a highly rewarding option to present in stores because of the encouragement and convenience it provides to buyers is great. The increase in checkout monetization rate on the SeatGeek app is a great indicator of Apple Pay’s significance in the industry, as it encourages consumers to purchase in scenarios “in a case where [they] wouldn’t have otherwise. That’s huge,” said Groetzinger.
And SeatGeek is not the only company to experience such increase in output by introducing Apple Pay as an official mode of payment for its services. Indiegogo, a crowdfunding site, also showed an increase of 2.5 times in turnover after the introduction of the Apple Pay mobile payment service on its website.
Consumers are becoming more and more comfortable making purchases on their phones, due to the ensured security newer mobile operating systems and new mobile payment services such as Apple Pay provide. Although Google Wallet is also becoming increasingly popular now, Apple Pay is still a great addition to the market paying options.
