By
Godfrey Benjamin
March 22nd, 2024
Apple and Square join efforts to educate users across the nation about the value of mobile payments.
Square Inc. encourages its customers to appreciate mobile payments by offering more than $12,000 worth of Apple Pay transactions for free over a year. Besides, sellers can also get a free marketing kit (with Apple Pay stickers probably) and training materials to teach employees how Apple Pay works.
The notion of mobile payments and Apple Pay in particular can still be new to many people. The very understanding of how simple the use of Apple Pay is could encourage more people to see it as a convenient payment method. If people realize that Apple Pay is used by double tapping on the home button when the phone is locked, they will feel that it’s even easier than paying with credit card.
Square has already conducted training about Apple Pay among merchants and customers in Portland. The course included display ads on trains, discount beer tasting, and yoga classes to persuade shoppers to pay with their phones. The training has resulted in the tripled use of contactless payments.
Square hopes to see its investment boosting sales of its contactless readers and attracting new merchants to sign on to the system. Consumer use of mobile wallets such as Apple Pay “is still new, it’s early days, and it’s small,” Jesse Dorogusker, Square’s head of hardware, said. “But we think the opportunity is big if we can communicate the right story — speed to get in and out of a business matter and it’s also a more secure transaction.Начало формы
Apple and Square join efforts to educate users across the nation about the value of mobile payments in the US. Javelin Strategy and Research has evaluated that now mobile payments represent less than 1 percent of all transactions, but are expected to triple to $92 billion by 2020.
“Mobile payments are not yet ubiquitous and a lot of consumers don’t even think to use it,” said Emmett Higdon, analyst at Javelin. “What Square is doing to make contactless payments available at more locations is great. We need to solve that problem first.”
Joshua Kulp, a Square merchant and owner of Honey Butter Fried Chicken in Chicago, said that Apple Pay is becoming more popular than credit cards and explained: “Keeping the line moving and flowing is very important to us. When chip readers came out, we all noticed it took seconds longer than everyone was used to. With Apple pay it’s so fast.”
The campaign with Apple Inc.’s digital payment technology will be targeted at retail businesses with counter tops – as opposed to food trucks and street sellers that were among Square’s earliest customers.
Apple has focused on the promotion of its services as the company faces stiffer competition. While Apple Pay holds the position of the market leader in mobile in-store payments, many retailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to CVS Health Corp. are rolling out their own services.