Tag: Apple Pay

Global Watch: Apple Pay Continues Its International Expansion

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple Pay continues its global expansion as it enters two new major international markets this week. Apple’s mobile payment solution officially launched in Canada on Tuesday, and will become available in Australia starting this Thursday. In both countries, however, Apple Pay will be limited to supporting American Express cards for now, as part of Apple’s global partnership with AmEx. Moreover, Apple Pay has also added support for two major British banks Tesco and TSB 4 months after its initial launch in July, further expanding its scope in the U.K. market.

What Brands Need To Do
Since its initial launch over a year ago, Apple Pay has come a long way, gaining growing support from banks and merchants. Last month, Starbucks, KFC, and Chili’s became the most recent companies that added support for Apple Pay in their U.S. stores. As Apple pushes Apple Pay into more global markets, it is set to capture more global users in the process. For brands that have a presence in those aforementioned markets, this presents a good opportunity to target local consumers using Apple Pay’s integration of reward programs.  

 

Source: Apple Insider

Apple Pay Goes Global With AmEx Partnership

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple is pushing Apple Pay worldwide with a new partnership with American Express, which will bring Apple’s mobile payment solution to consumers in Australia and Canada soon, before expanding to Spain, Hong Kong, and Singapore in 2016. Apple Pay is said to be growing by double digits, according to CEO Tim Cook during Apple’s Q4 earnings call yesterday. Previously, Apple Pay launched in U.K. in mid-July, marking its first entry into international markets.

Market Impact
Since its initial launch over a year ago, Apple Pay has come a long way, gaining growing acceptance at retailers around the U.S. Earlier this month, Starbucks, KFC, and Chili’s became the most recent companies that added support for Apple Pay in their stores nationwide. Now with AmEx’s help, Apple is set to push Apple Pay into more global markets, expanding its scope and capturing more users in the process. For brands that have presence in those aforementioned markets, this presents a good opportunity to target local consumers using Apple Pay’s integration of reward programs.  

 

Source: Re/Code

Apple Pay Is Coming To Starbucks And More

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple Pay continues to gain momentum as Apple announced today its planned roll-out in Starbucks, KFC, and Chili’s locations across the country. Apple’s mobile payment solution will be tested in a few select Starbucks outlets later this year, with a nationwide roll-out in 2016. Both KFC and Chili’s will also start supporting it early next year. Given the early success of Starbucks’ own mobile app, which includes features such as a loyalty program and, more recently, mobile ordering, it will be interesting to see how Starbucks will integrate Apple Pay into its existing mobile assets.  

Market Impact
These new partnerships, especially the one with Starbucks, will undoubtedly broaden Apple Pay’s reach and help accelerate the mass adoption of Apple’s mobile payment. For retailers, this means now is the time to start thinking about incorporating your existing reward and loyalty programs into new point of sale systems, in order to give your customers a frictionless shopping experience.

 

Source: Engaget

 

Apple Partners With PayAnywhere To Further Expand Apple Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple has struck a new partnership with PayAnywhere, a POS solution provider that serves more than 300,000 locations around the United States. As part of the partnership, the latest version of the PayAnywhere card reader will also be sold in all Apple Stores.

What Brands Should Do
This new partnership undoubtedly broadens Apple Pay’s reach, which in turn could only help the mass adoption of Apple’s mobile payment. For brands, especially those in retail, this means now is the time to start incorporating your existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems, offering your customer a frictionless shopping experience. To promote Apple Pay usage, PayAnywhere is also offering merchants $5,000 worth of free Apple Pay transaction processing, something that SMBs and independent merchants could take advantage of.

Source: TechCrunch

Samsung Pay Is Here, Supports Magnetic Card Readers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Yesterday Samsung unveiled its newest phablet offers – the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+, both of which will come with Samsung’s answer to Apple Pay built in. Similar to its competitors, Samsung Pay allows users to pay at stores with major credit cards by simply tapping their phones at a NFC-enabled card reader and authenticating their identity with a fingerprint scan.

More importantly, however, Samsung Pay can also work with traditional magnetic credit card readers. In addition to the NFC support, it also broadcasts short-range wireless fields that mimic magnetic card swipes. Samsung has planned a beta program in August, and will be rolling it out to Note 5 and S6 Edge+ users in September or October.

What Brands Should Do
As the mobile payment space continues to evolve and diversify, a rapidly increasing number of smartphone users will be adopting it as more options become available. Businesses would be wise to start developing a holistic digital payment strategy to stay ahead of the adoption curve. In addition to its aforementioned compatibility with the vast majority of payment terminals,  Samsung Pay will also support some store credit cards, which means retailers can easily incorporate their rewards and loyalty program into point of sale system.

 

Source: Re/Code

RIte Aid To Start Accepting Mobile Payments Including Apple Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
National drugstore chain Rite Aid will start accepting both Apple Pay and Google Wallet this upcoming Saturday in all its 4,600 stores across the country. The company also plans to accept Google’s forthcoming Android Pay, as well as tap-to-pay credit cards.

What Brands Should Do
Despite being a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium that backs its own mobile payment system CurrentC which aims to compete with the likes of Apple Pay, Rite Aid has seemingly realized the importance of giving customers the option to use their prefered mobile payment method. Best Buy, also a member of MCX, announced a similar decision earlier this year. Such newfound acceptance among the national retailers will no doubt furher boost the adoption rate of mobile payments. For brands that wish to stay ahead of the digital curve, now would be the time to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.

 

Source: New York Times

Pinterest Officially Launches “Buyable Pins” To Mobile

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Marketing Land

Just weeks after announcing its plan to dive into social ecommerce with “Buyable Pins”, Pinterest officially launched the new feature today on iPhones and iPads, allowing iOS users in the U.S. to purchase products directly from the social network. Purchases can be made seamlessly within the Pinterest app using Apple Pay or a credit card. Pinterest says it currently has 30 million buyable pins from a various retailers, including Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom, as well as e-commerce sites powered by Demandware and Shopify stores.

New Apple Pay Feature Allows Brands To Push Offers Via iAd

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: 9to5Mac

At the WWDC event last week, Apple Pay received a major update that added support for rewards and loyalty programs. Now, new reports claim that with the new Wallet app in iOS 9,  revamped from the old Passbook app, Apple will allow brands to send out customized offers through its mobile ad platform iAd.

As Apple noted on its blog, The Offers feature will allow marketers to push out personalized brand messages that can also be “triggered with updates specific to a store location via iBeacon”, or alternatively targeting users by age, gender, location, or “specify custom demographics using their own data”.

If Apple could smoothly integrate this new feature into Apple Pay without being too intrusive, it would be of great use for brands and marketers alike, as it can reach loyal customers with specific messages that reflect their preferences and interests, or help acquire new customers by presenting a location-sensitive value offer at moments that matter. We see great potential in this new feature, as Apple sure loves that it offers advertisers more reasons to jump on iAd, where it takes a 30% cut of the ad sales.

Microsoft Itching Close To Launching Its Apple Pay Competitor

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Business Insider

Months after the official launch of Apple Pay, Microsoft is finally catching up and readying the launch of its own mobile payment system. A few weeks ago at the WinHEC developer conference in Shenzhen, China, Windows showcased a “tap to pay” feature baked into Windows 10 phones. And now Idaho has reportedly approved the company’s plan to launch its own payment transfer service, which will undoubtedly be made available throughout the states.

The Next Step For Google Wallet

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Re/code

In its latest attempt to compete with Apple Pay, Google has inked a distribution deal with major US carriers: Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T will pre-install Google Wallet on their Android phones for US consumers starting later this year. Meanwhile, Google is also licensing payment technology from Softcard to help smooth its impending expansion. Given that Apple Pay comes with every new iOS device, it seems fair for Google to try the same tactic.