Apple Kicks Off Massive Digital Payments Promotion In San Francisco; Big Discounts With Apple Pay
Apple kicked off a major digital wallet promotion in San Francisco today. This is just days after CEO Tim Cook reported that the company tripled Apple Pay transactions this year, hitting more than $1 billion in annual volume.
That’s bigger than Square and more than Paypal’s mobile transactions, says Apple.
And it has some saying that Apple is now a major fintech player.
Apple Pay is the company’s digital wallet. Consumers can digitize their credit cards and manage all their transactions via their phone, if the merchants they patronize have enabled contactless payments (tap to pay). Apple reportedly doesn’t make a lot of money on the transactions … just $0.15 per every $100 in transactions … but the service does make its customers more dependent on their phones.
And, there could be further data and transaction plays down the road, as adoption increases.
Hence the new promotion.
At Asian Box, using Apple Pay gets you 50% off. Boba Guys, whose fruit drinks typically cost $5 to $8, will give you a $1 drink when you pay with Apple Pay. Fog City Leathers is offering 25% off with Apple Pay, and Lululemon, Books Inc., Fenzi, and over 100 other local shops, restaurants, and other vendors are participating as well.
Credit card companies make 1.5% to 3% for every swipe of a card.
That’s a problem for retailers who operate on ever-thinner margins. Kroger’s, for instance, is considering a ban on Visa credit cards because it feels Kroger is paying too much. If Apple becomes dominant in payments, Apple could raise its fees at some point, or offer merchant services that help retailers understand their buyers better.
John Koetsier
Forbes
Aug 3, 2018, 12:05pm
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS TO REPRESENT 1 IN 3 IN-STORE TRANSACTIONS GLOBALLY BY 2020
Juniper Research
30th July 2018
Credit-Card Backlash Mounts as Kroger Weighs Expanding Visa Ban
Bloomberg
July 31, 2018, 12:14 AM GMT+5:30
Buy these payments stocks: No.1 rated analyst
CNBC Television
Published on Jul 11, 2018
