On a recent visit to the Apple Store at Lenox Square, I took a moment to notice the different forms of payment that the customers ahead of me were using. Some paid for their items with cash, others with the more common credit and debit cards. Others paid with Apple Pay via their, you guessed it, Apple iPhones.
The Apple Pay application is reportedly making an online debut for the holiday shopping season and to say it's a game-changer is a massive understatement. In its present form only Apple device users can access Apple Pay and only at stores that offer the service like the Apple Store, Dunkin' Donuts, J.C. Penney, Kohl's and Walgreens to name a few. With millions of Americans owning iPhones, there is a chance for accessibility to funds to be even easier than a simple swipe of a credit or debit card: a tap of your smartphone.
Moovweb Chief Revenue Officer Dileepan Siva believes an online version of Apple Pay will practically eliminate the use of retail applications.
"A lot of retailers have built apps, but the average smartphone user doesn't use a retail app on their phone," he said from his office in San Francisco. "Outside of Amazon, people are going to shop at the stores or at their respective websites online. Apple Pay for the web is a huge player in the commerce game."
That is what makes Apple Pay's move into the "brick and mortar" shopping experience so important. The divide between online shopping and shopping at the mall will grow closer by leaps and bounds.
"It's fair to say that millions of people use their iPhones as much if not more than than they use their laptops and desktops," Siva said, particularly for shopping.
Services like PayPal and Samsung Pay (available for Samsung smartphone users) provide the extra security necessary for digital shopping. Neither of those payment forms have the reach of Apple Pay according to Siva.
"Imagine that kind of efficient and expeditious shopping experience for any retailer on the web without the use of a particular app," he said. "Imagine a world where your shopping experience is as good and secure on your iPhone as it is on your laptop."
Apple Pay has an estimated 600 million registered accounts worldwide and with a reported 94 million iPhone owners in the United States according to a May 2015 story by CNet reporter Don Resinger, Apple Pay is sure to move past a niche option and begin knocking on the door of the more established payment methods in the U.S.
