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Apple Pay has brought the one-click simplicity of its mobile-payments service to the desktop and mobile browsers. Apple Inc. on Tuesday released an update for Apple computers that enables consumers to pay using its Apple Pay mobile wallet on participating Web sites, such as Lululemon.com and Apple.com, but only when using its Safari browser.
Apple Pay for mobile-commerce sites debuted last week with a software update for the iPhone and iPad.
On the Web, Apple Pay uses the same stored card data, addresses, and personal information as the mobile-payment service. Apple Pay launched two years ago for in-app transactions and as a near-field communication (NFC) contactless service for in-store purchasing, Apple announced in June that it would introduce a Web version. Apple did not respond to a Digital Transactions News inquiry.
Safari, according to data provider Net Applications, only has a 4.3% share of the desktop user base. By contrast, Google’s Chrome browser, which works on multiple operating systems, is used by 54% of consumers.
Online retailers must enroll in Apple Pay to offer it on their e-commerce sites. Consumers use the service by clicking the Apple Pay button during the checkout process. On the desktop version of Lululemon.com, an online seller of athletic apparel, the Apple Pay button appears on the product detail page, enabling a quick purchase without additional steps to complete the checkout process. On Apple.com, the Apple Pay button appears once a consumer loads an item into the shopping cart.
In each instance, upon clicking the Apple Pay button, a dialog box appears on the page for the consumer to confirm the shipping and payment card details. The consumer then must confirm the payment by placing a finger on the Touch ID button on her iPhone or by double-tapping the Apple Pay confirmation button on her Apple Watch.
Despite the meager installed base for Safari, expanding Apple Pay to the Web is a wise move, says Marc Abbey, managing partner at First Annapolis Consulting, an Annapolis, Md.-based payments advisory firm. “There’s a lot of investment in mobile wallets today, but they’re not having much impact yet,” Abbey tells Digital Transactions News. “Apple Pay is building out the functionality of their offer [and] that makes it more relevant.”
The browser-based e-commerce market is huge, Abbey says. The U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent e-commerce sales report says e-commerce sales in the second quarter accounted for 8.1% of all retail sales, up from 7.1% in the same quarter in 2015. “They still have to get merchants enabled,” Abbey says of Apple Pay online, “but it makes the Apple Pay product more functional.”
For Igor Gorin, founder and chief executive of Astound Commerce, a San Francisco-based e-commerce platform provider, Apple Pay on the Web is akin to Amazon.com Inc.’s 1-Click ordering service.
“Amazon had introduced [1-Click] only for use on Amazon and that was one of their unique competitive differentiators,” Gorin tells Digital Transactions News via email. “I do not think this new rollout of Apple Pay is as dramatic as One Click Checkout, but if consumers are using all Apple products, it significantly simplifies the payment step of the checkout and therefore drastically improves the shopping experience for the rest of the retail merchants and their customers.”
It is unlikely that Apple will make Apple Pay available in other browsers, Gorin says. “Apple Pay won’t have to move into other browsers to be a success,” he says. “For Apple, Apple Pay isn’t only about creating a new way for consumers to pay, but is also a way for the company to bring new users into their existing product line while solidifying control over their current users.”
Simplifying the checkout experience, especially on mobile devices, is critical to increasing payment volume. That’s one reason mobile wallets garner a lot of attention, Abbey says. What mobile wallets have seen so far is a lot of initial use, but not good repeat usage, he says. Making them available in a browser expands the potential use.
Acquirers and others involved in the payment-acceptance side need to monitor such developments, Abbey says. “The question will be, are mobile wallets just displacing other forms of payments or creating new volume?” he says. “It does raise the stakes of acceptance-side players being able to support these mobile wallets.”
