PayPal has apparently fallen as the leader among U.S. merchants and Apple Pay has taken its place.
Per NFC World, Apple today sits at 36 percent versus 16 percent a year ago. PayPal, by contrast, is being offered by 34 percent of merchants.
Both Apple and PayPal are trailed by MasterCard PayPass (25 percent), Android Pay (24 percent), Visa Checkout (20 percent), Samsung Pay (18 percent) and Chase Pay (11 percent). Notably, Samsung Pay can be used at businesses that don’t officially support the platform.
The data found that about 22 percent of businesses are planning to adopt Apple Pay within the next 12 months, whereas 11 percent are expecting to support it in the next 1 to 3 years. Roughly 31 percent, according to the study, are waiting to see how things shake out in the long term.
Apple has faced a number of hurdles in the pursuit of U.S. merchant adoption of its payment platform. In the cases of major chains which still haven’t come aboard, a good number cited the cost of upgrading to sale terminals with compatible NFC technology.
Small businesses are potentially more flexible, though the extent of their Apple Pay adoption is unknown. Recently Apple and Square partnered to promote the latter’s compatible card reader.
During a recent results call, Apple said that global Apple Pay transactions were up 500 percent year-over-year in the December quarter, backed by triple the number of users.
As always, stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and NFC World