What is Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is a mobile payment system which has been going for almost a year in the US, and is new to the UK, it is a payment system that replaces the need for a physical card when making in-store transactions. You simply just put your phone up to the payment terminal and the phone will recognise this with near field communication (NFC). Simply put your finger on TouchID to verify you want to make the payment and it then transfers the payment information wirelessly and pretty much instantly. To setup Apple Pay you simply have to take a picture of your card, the Passbook app reads your card number , to verify you can have a code sent to your number or you can phone your bank.
The Passbook app has been on iOS since 2012 and it allows you to store coupons, loyalty cards, boarding passes and other things you would typically put in your physical wallet. Eventually it will replace the need for a physical waller altogether.
How Can Marketers Take Advantage of Apple Pay and Passbook?
Many retailers such as Nando’s, Marks & Spencers, Starbucks, McDonalds, Bill’s, and many more big name brands have all made it possible to use Apple pay in their stores. However, it’s easy for small business marketers to start taking advantage now Apple Pay in the UK is in full swing. Below explains how marketers can (and should) take advantage:
1. Change your eCommerce user-experience to encourage one-touch checkout.
It’s going to get easier and easier to buy on mobile devices now. Apple Pay is currently the only main one touch payment for in app, however Android Pay is coming soon and will allow users to do the same thing. So you should be thinking about your own eCommerce website and mobile apps. Put time and resources into making them easy to use and navigate, make them look appealing so people will want to buy. Remember that one-touch checkout is already an option with Apple Pay and soon to be available with Android Pay, so consider altering your strategy to take advantage of this, quicker payments can only be a bonus!
2. Optimise your marketing campaigns for mobile wallets & think about location
People love Apple Pay and will choose companies who help them enter the wallet-less era, many customers of Barclay’s bank mentioned they were switching banks when Barclay’s didn’t support Apple Pay’s launch. These same customers would prefer to use stores which support the mobile wallet then those who don’t.
Supporting mobile wallets can be as easy as adding a clickable “Add to Passbook” button to your marketing campaigns. Passbook was originally created to help people digitally store things like boarding passes, movie tickets, and coupons. Although soon Apple Pay will support loyalty programs making the process even simpler and hopefully be integrated into the checkout process.
Make sure you have a decent number of quality coupons and programs out there. Have a look at Passbook and become familiar with how to use the app and how to integrate your marketing initiatives. In other words, try to have your brand content sit inside Passbook. With location based push notifications, you could walk into a store, get presented with a coupon, and then use it from your phone during the checkout process.
Location is very important, with iBeacon technology which allows Passbook to know where someone is at any given moment, which can then offer up the opportunity for targeted mobile ads. When consumers are in close proximity to a shopping destination, Passbook will remind them that they have offers, coupons, reward points, etc. if they are saved on the consumer’s iPhone.
