Several retailers may not be ready to adopt Apple Pay as a mobile payment solution, but it appears those who did embrace it, they are seeing an increasing number of customers interested in using it.
It’s been a few weeks since Apple rolled out Apple Pay, and according to NY Times, several customers are eager to check out using their iPhones. Even the competitors such as Google say that Apple created awareness in the mobile payments market, and they’ve seen an increase in the use of their services as well.
McDonald’s is one of the early adopters of Apple Pay, deploying it in 14,000 stores across the US. The fast food chain said Apple Pay accounted for 50 percent of their tap-to-pay transactions. Furthermore, Whole Foods, a big grocery chain, also reported they’ve recorded 150,000 Apple Pay transactions since its launch.
As for Walgreens, a big drug store chain, didn’t reveal exact numbers but mentioned that mobile payments have doubled since the launch of Apple Pay.
“Quite frankly, a lot of it has to do with the strength of the Apple brand and how much merchants and customers love how easy the experience is,” said Denée Carrington, an analyst with Forrester Research. “I’m not saying it’s changing the landscape overnight. But this has never happened with other mobile wallets.”
The numbers looks promising, but the mobile payments market is still relatively small, but it’s increasing at a slow rate. NY Times said that consumers spent around $37 billion in the US through mobile payments in 2013, an increase of $24 billion compared to last year.