It’s been four weeks since Apple Inc.’s mobile payments system Apple Pay Oct. 20 debut, and most of Apple’s merchant partners are keeping mum about early results.
But one merchant, grocery chain Whole Foods Market Inc., says it completed 150,000 Apple Pay transactions in the first 17 days following the launch of the payment method that enables consumers to use their iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus smartphones to pay in a store with one touch. That puts Apple Pay transactions at 0.91% of total sales during the period, experts say. The Apple Pay “experience at checkout has been very fast, convenient and secure,” says a Whole Foods spokesman.
But experts say Whole Foods’ numbers likely aren’t typical. “1% is a very big number this early on which could well relate to a higher than average overlap between the Apple/Whole Foods customer bases, Whole Foods’ proactive approach to mobile payments in general, and perhaps some incremental marketing activities,” says Rick Oglesby, a senior analyst at Double Diamond Group LLC.
Most other early adopters are keeping early results to themselves. A spokesman for Target Corp. says it’s too early to share results, but implied the mass merchant would share figures in the future. Staples Inc., Groupon Inc. and Macy’s Inc. all declined to share information about their implementations of Apple Pay. Merchants can use Apple Pay in stores or in apps to accept payments. Both methods use the TouchID fingerprint scanner for verification.
A general manager at a Chicago Unleashed pet store, owned by Apple Pay partner Petco Animal Supplies Inc., says about 20 customers use Apple Pay every day, and 15 are women. “Most are in a hurry, and are especially happy with the easiness so they don’t have to scrounge through their purses,” Carmelo Preiti says. A spokeswoman from McDonald’s says the company has “been pleased with the initial results of Apple Pay and our customers are enjoying using it at McDonald’s drive-thru.”
Apple says it sold 39.2 million phones as of Sept. 27, the end of its fiscal year. That’s more than the 33.8 million iPhones it sold during the same quarter in 2013. Moreover, the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus only went on sale on Sept. 19 (eight days before the end of the fiscal year), and Apple sold 10 million units in the first three days, Apple reports.
Vibes, a mobile marketing firm, saw a 54.3% increase in Passbook Pass installs in October 2014 compared to September 2014. Passbook is the Apple iOS mobile wallet app that allows consumers to use Apple Pay, as well as store loyalty cards, movie tickets, membership cards and other materials. Vibes does not have specific numbers on Apple Pay.
Changing consumer behavior, including how they pay for things, is difficult. Overstock.com Inc., which was one of the first retailers to accepting digital currency bitcoin, reported the alternative currency accounted for just 0.4% of sales a few months after it began accepting it.
Favorite