Most Top Retailers ‘Won’t Accept Apple Pay’

Apple Pay might not be set for the rapturous reception the company expected, according to a survey which found many retailers are not going to be supporting the technology.

Speaking to a hundred top merchants in the US, the only market where Apple Pay is currently available, a Reuters survey found that around two-thirds would not be providing the system any time in 2015.

Of the companies who responded, less than a quarter said they currently accepted Apple Pay, and only four more said they planned to offer it in 2016.

Going cold?

The reasons for not offering Apple Pay included insufficient customer demand, a lack of access to data generated in Apple Pay transactions and the cost of technology to facilitate the payments, for not accepting the service.

Some of the merchants also said they were holding out because they plan to participate in a new mobile payment system to be launched by a coalition of retailers later this year.

Reuters gathered the finding using the National Retail Federation’s list of the top 100 U.S. retailers, surveying the 98 that had brick-and-mortar outlets (as two of the top 100 only sold online). Eighty-five supplied detailed responses, and 11 others supplied information only about whether or not they accept Apple Pay, with two failing to respond.

Despite these findings, Apple Pay does appear to have been an initial success, with figures released by Apple in March showing that 700,000 merchants had signed up for the service since its launch in September 2014.

Apple is expected to announce many more markets for Apple Pay at its WWDC conference next week, with the UK thought to be one of the main countries included.

The technology can already be used in this country in certain cases, with a TfL spokesperson revealing earlier this week that Apple Pay can be used to pay for journeys on London’s travel network.

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