Apple Pay Sees Strong Customer Interest Across Participating Retailers

Apple Pay, which has already become the number one source of contactless payments across the United States, has seen significant adoption by customers at participating retailers over the last month.

According to a report from The New York Times, Apple Pay has been a huge success at retailers like Whole Foods, McDonald’s, and Walgreens.

“Whole Foods, the high-end grocery chain, said it had processed more than 150,000 Apple Pay transactions. McDonald’s, which accepts Apple Pay at its 14,000 restaurants in the United States, said Apple Pay accounted for 50 percent of its tap-to-pay transactions. And Walgreens, the nationwide chain of drugstores, said its mobile wallet payments had doubled since Apple Pay came out.”

Not only has Apple Pay been increasing the number of tap-to-pay transactions, it has also raised awareness of competing mobile payment platforms. Both Google Wallet and Softcard have seen increased use since the launch of Apple Pay.

“Mobile payments have quickly been growing more popular, but over all, spending with a smartphone is low. The research firm Gartner estimated that worldwide, people spent $235.4 billion through mobile payments in 2013, compared with $163.1 billion in 2012. But that number is much smaller in North America, where consumers spent about $37 billion through mobile transactions in 2013, up from $24 billion the previous year.”

Jan Dawson, a telecom analyst for Jackdaw Research, said that it will probably take several years before Apple Pay becomes mainstream because the payment system is currently only supported by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Also, there are many retailers who do not yet support mobile payment technology.

The company has plenty of room for growth inside and outside of the United States. It may take several years before Apple Pay makes it to enough countries around the world to call it a mainstream payment solution, however, we will get there soon enough given the current levels of customer interest.

Apple Pay is currently supported by over 30 U.S. retailers, with grocery store chains Winn-Dixie and BI-LO to be the latest to adopt Apple’s mobile payment system.