Apple Pay was introduced in September and launched fully by the following month, with the goal to replace the "archaic" method of making payments with a physical debit or credit card. However, according to a new survey, the new service seems to be having a few hiccups in its early days.
Phoenix Marketing International surveyed 3,000 credit cardholders, of which 350 signed up to use the Apple Pay service. According to the study, 59% of Apple Pay users have gone into a store and asked to pay for their goods with the said service. But 47% visited a store claiming to be "Apple Pay Friendly," only to find out that the store was not accepting (or not yet ready to accept) the Apple payment service.
According to Phoenix Senior Vice President Leon Majors:
Two-out-of-three Apple Pay users have reported a problem at checkout – mostly related to terminals not working or taking too long to make the transaction, inaccurate posting of transactions and the inability of cashiers to help buyers who needed assistance in using Apple Pay.
Majors added that despite the high marks given to the scheme by Apple Pay users and that 23% of the people surveyed expected to significantly increase use in the next three months, problems that occur during checkout are downgrading the transaction potential.
Also, according to Greg Weed, director of card research at Phoenix, "48% of users have paid with Apple Pay just one time and that’s not going to cut it." He also suggested that since Apple Pay is still in an introductory stage, continuously updating the "local store directory" in the Passbook app is a must, and that posting a list of participating retailers on a website is not enough.
Source: Phoenix Marketing International via Digital Trends