Roger Fingas
Some independent retailers and app developers in the U.K. are reportedly already adopting Apple Pay, just days after the service became available in the region.
One prominent example is Shoreditch Grind, a London coffee shop, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday. Store manager Alex Ghalleb commented that few customers have tried Apple Pay so far, but he expects it to become an advantage as mobile payments increase in popularity. In August, the shop is planning to launch an app that will allow preorders with any smartphone, not just iPhones.
Flypay, a developer that builds apps for ordering and paying for meals, said that its titles will support Apple Pay in the near future. Meanwhile, payment technology firm Payleven is also working on an Apple Pay-compatible product, and flower delivery service Bloom & Wild is currently accepting in-app transactions via Apple's platform. People wanting to conduct money transfers using the technology can do so through a Transferwise app.
Wireless payments in general are a growing phenomenon in the U.K., although non-cash payment methods only became dominant there in 2014. Apple Pay launched in the region on Monday, and can be used at over 250,000 locations, with card support by a number of major banks.
Back in the U.S., Apple Pay is still largely the domain of big national and regional chains. The company has been trying to encourage independents but without much success. In that realm Apple faces competition from platforms like Square and PayPal, which are tailored to small-scale deployments.
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15 Comments
For our American readers, Shoreditch is the London equivalent of Williamsburg. It's wholly unsurprisingly that the local coffee shops are supporting Apple Pay. I work just up the road and no-one batters an eyelid when I pay for things with my Apple Watch.
I'm inclined to believe that Apple Pay may well be the killer app for the Apple Watch. From my personal experience it's so much easier to double tap the button on the watch and move watch face to the terminal than to even fumble around getting your wallet out of your pocket. There is the added advantage of avoiding "card clash" where there's more than one contactless card in your wallet or purse. I
[quote name="RichL" url="/t/187257/independent-uk-businesses-quickly-jump-on-board-with-apple-pay#post_2749458"]For our American readers, Shoreditch is the London equivalent of Williamsburg. It's wholly unsurprisingly that the local coffee shops are supporting Apple Pay. I work just up the road and[B] no-one batters an eyelid[/B] when I pay for things with my Apple Watch.[/quote] As in Fish & Chips or Cricket? Either way it sounds brutal and I am glad no one does either. In fact, I'd definitely bat my eyelid if I ever saw a fellow Brit batter any body part, least of all an eyelid. ;)
I used Apple Pay on the first UK day in Boots The Chemist. The cashier did not know about it but we had no problems when I said it was similar to a contactless payment. She seemed very interested. What I really liked was that this was a small branch of Boots so I was not expecting their technology to be the latest yet it just worked. It is things like this that show how Apple is so much better than others in implementing new technology.
One of the guys at work tried it in McDonalds on launch day with no issues - now I just need my bank to get their arse in gear and support it... I'm with Halifax who are still "coming soon" :mad: Shame it still has the same £20 limit as unsecured contactless cards but there is supposedly an update for the contactless POS terminals (not sure if software or hardware) somewhere in the works to remove this...