Apple Pay the friendly face of Fintech

Apple Pay launches today, Tuesday 14th July, in the UK. For those with an iPhone 6, 6+ or an Apple Watch this means their phone or watch will provide secure contactless payments with over 250,00 locations such as Waitrose, M&S, Lidl, and Spar. TFL accepts Apple Pay for travel on London Transport too. Many UK banks are participating with Apple Pay with plenty more coming soon.

A notable exception is Barclays Bank who are still in negotiation with Apple. How long these negotiations go on is open to question given that Barclays launched their own alternative contactless payment service bPay earlier this year. How well bPay will fair given that their physical bPay devices are not secured with a fingerprint like Apple Pay and they cost up to £24.99 for a wristband, with a strict 24 month lifespan is also open to question.

What are the consequences for payments?

A tidal wave of change for consumers, merchants and banks.

Card present payments (grocery shopping in a store) have already become simpler and quicker for consumers with the introduction of NFC (Near Field Communication) bank cards. As suppliers of alternative disruptor NFC payment services propagate bigger UK stores like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Currys will race to adopt alternative payments.

For merchants having an their own app that incorporates in app payments provided by Apple Pay will provide a speedy and frictionless payment experience. Imagine you’re ready to pay, being near the till prompts the merchant app on your phone into activity, you scan your fingerprint and you’re done. Paid and out of the door.

For card not present payments (buying online) there is going to be a paradigm shift. Secure in app payments have become trivial. With 5% of UK phones enabled with fingerprint scanning the difference a merchant experiences between mobile conversion rates and desktop conversion rates will dwindle as the payment process disappears into a seamless mobile experience.

We know that most mobile purchases are made on impulse. Picture this, you’re walking down the street you see some flowers, you’re reminded of your aunts birthday, you decide to send flowers as you walk down the street. With an ewallet or mobile payment service you’re no longer required to juggle cards and phone as you walk you can thumb your device and pay. No nasty keying of data.

Acting on impulse and satisfying an impulse is addictive and sales will increase. judoPay an award winning provider of simple, secure card payments for mobile, suggest a 6x increase in in-app sales across all devices. (No, I don’t work for judoPay)

How can I boost mobile sales?

Secure frictionless payments for mobile, web and in-app are here today. Providing an easy payment method online is a point of differentiation today, soon it will be an expected part of your service. If you’re not ready to implement mobile payments then it’s time to get ready. You can start by prototyping and user testing how you implement a mobile payment option into your checkout process or even consider replacing the existing checkout altogether a white labelled mobile payment service.

If this sounds like you and your challenge I’d love to see if I could help.

If you want to know more, please get in touch to talk through what you’re looking to do: walt.buchan (at) gmail.com, +44 (0)7951 801 317.