Apple Pay ‘Growing Nicely’ Says Analyst

March 27, 2017 by Paul Ausick

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) released its Apple Pay program for retail stores and in-app sales in the fall of 2014. Last fall the company added for mobile and desktop browser payments.

Long-time Apple analyst Gene Munster, now at Loup Ventures, issued a note last Friday detailing the adoption of the payment program among the retailers included in the Internet Retail 100 group of companies, which includes Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) and Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN), along with many smaller firms sorted into seven categories of innovation.

Loup Ventures created an Apple Pay adoption score rating that evaluates current retailer adoption of Apple Pay as a percentage of total potential adoption. There are four possible ways to use Apple Pay: point-of-sale, in-app purchases, mobile browser purchases and desktop browser purchases.

That yields a theoretical maximum of 400 points of potential adoption for the Internet Retail 100. In reality, only 62 offer point-of-sale payments and 54 offer dedicated apps. Thus, the total of possible adoption points drops to 316.

Based on that measure, 44% of the Internet Retail 100 (27 of 62) offer point-of-sale payments and 40% have adopted in-app purchases (22 of 54 that offer apps). Just 13% have adopted mobile browser payments and 9% have adopted desktop browser payments. Munster notes that given the fall release of the browser variants, retailers likely chose to wait until the holiday shopping season was over before integrating Apple Pay into their arsenal.

Other data points from Munster’s note include:

  • 2,091 banks accept Apple Pay globally, up from 1,439 in July of 2016.
  • We estimate about 13% of active iPhones have activated Apple Pay.
  • We estimate 30% of new iPhones are activating Apple Pay.
  • 53% of retailers listed as “coming soon in browsers” have launched in the first 6 months.
  • 31% of retailers in the Internet Retailer 100 accept Apple Pay, up from 28% in Oct.
  • 22% of all possible points adoption leverage Apple Pay within the Internet Retailer 100.

Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor

Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to 3 fiduciary financial advisors in your area in 5 minutes. Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you’re ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.