the magic of mobile pay

I only recently started using Apple Pay. I guess all new behaviors take time to adopt — but I feel it’s taken longer than usual to start reaching for my phone and not my wallet when it’s time to pay. Mobile pay is no where near being universally accepted like credit cards, which seems to be slowing adoption — but main use cases for me have been taxis and retailers like the grocery store and CVS.

So last night I played pick-up hoops and left my apartment with just my cell phone. I took a taxi to and from the gym. I was rushing and needed just a simple fingerprint authentication to pay for the taxi. I popped into the CVS quickly, grabbed a Gatorade and similarly paid with my phone. Payments for both those transactions were completely frictionless for me, I wasn’t waiting on anything. It really felt like that proverbial “magical” consumer experience VC’s talk about.

Moreover, I didn’t have to carry my wallet around. No risk of losing my license, credit cards, any cash. And no bulgy thing on my thigh that my altheisure clothes don’t have pockets for anyways…

I think right now we’re at this inflection point between early and mass adoption for in-person mobile payments. I think more and more, when it’s time to pay, you’ll be reaching for your phone — because soon enough, you won’t even be carrying around a physical wallet.