According to Tim Cook, Apple Pay is now available through 2,500 credit-card issuers and more than 700,000 brick-and-mortar stores.
But there’s a whole world of mobile and online retailing that we haven’t heard much about. So I made a few calls.
- Apple Pay has already become the No. 1 payment method at staples.com, says Prat Vemana, who runs Staples’ e-commerce business. On the website, 30% of all transactions on eligible devices are now completed with Apple Pay and conversions on those devices are up 109%.
- “It’s not only driving more purchases but activating our biggest spenders,” says Joe Einhorn, CEO of Fancy, a crowd-curated catalog store. Purchase frequency on Fancy is 30% higher among Apple Pay users and average total spend is five times better than non-Apple Pay users.
- Spring CEO Alan Tisch reports that Apple Pay is making his online fashion boutique stickier. Apple Pay users accounts for 23% of Spring’s orders and are 22% more likely to place a second order. They are also 26% more likely to place a larger second order than their first, and that second order comes in 30% faster.
- “Apple Pay reduces friction, increases conversions and allows our customers to spend more time shopping,” says Edward Aten, CEO of Merchbar, which sells band merchandise from everybody from Jay Z to the Rolling Stones. 41% of Merchbar’s users are on Apple Pay capable phones, and 42% of transactions are completed using Apple Pay.
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The fact that none of these guys brought up or seemed at all concerned about cybertheft may tell you more than any headline that contains the words Apple, Pay and Fraud.
“There’s no downside,” says Spring’s Alan Tisch. “Anything in commerce that makes it easier for customers to pay, you focus on. This has been a bigger success than we anticipated.”
Jim Dalrymple is the founder of The Loop. He has been reporting on Apple for more than two decades.