Apple Pay remains a baby that’s barely months old and accessible only in the US, but its potential as another method of helping marketers reach consumers is enormous.
Add in the chances to join the payment using Apple platform iAd to allow consumers to buy products found in cellular advertisements and the potential is great still.
How is real take-up faring? As a different payment option for clients there have been equal levels of doubt to the excitement that the initial September announcement of this technology introduced.
Slow uptake
New research by InfoScout indicates there is some way to go. The company monitored the purchasing behavior and remarks of these in its 170,000 US household consumer panel that shopped and own an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. The idea was to gauge true use of the technology which — after all — is supposed to be quicker and simpler than the card substitute.
Together with nearly all (91 percent) of iPhone 6 or 6+ users yet to even try Apple Pay the results showed there was a 50-50 chance that they’d use it at checkout when shopping at a participating retailer on Black Friday.
The reasons why they liked the tech centred because of its ease of use, speed at checkout and security but when that was translated into a real-life experience it made interesting reading.
Poor marketing
It was noted that 31% of customers didn’t use Apple Pay only because they did not realise that the shop supported it, one in four forgot and one in five (19%) said they didn’t have their phone.
As a process that has come to be one of dependence the absence of consciousness, or forgetfulness’ reason over support of the technologies is unsurprising customers are used to paying with money or swiping a card. Marketeers need to work harder so to capture mindshare at checkout.
And there is chance for marketeers by helping them know how to utilize it to better educate their clients. The poll showed that a third (32 percent) of eligible users hadn’t tried Apple Pay since they were not familiar with how it works, while 11% simply had not heard of it.
It’s early days for the technology and change will take time. The advertising opportunities it brings however, are significant.
