What percentage of iPhone users use or would use Apple Pay? I think not very many. The iPhone is a luxury brand. If the owner is 50 or above, they are only comfortable with credit cards, and won't risk new-fangled NFC. If older than 65, they still write checks.
Apparently you neglected to check your stereotypes at the door.
They probably want the shopper data back, simple as that.
This. Honestly, I'm sometimes surprised that Apple Pay is as widely accepted as it is, given that. Then I remember that it's likely that only a small percentage of iPhone users even use it, and iPhone is only about ~15% of the market itself. I've never once seen someone other than myself pay with it. The percentage of all customers paying with Apple Pay is very small, so vendors generate more goodwill by accepting it than they what they lose in customer data. I wonder how merchants would react if it ever REALLY caught on.
Apple Pay is still used by a small percentage of iPhone users as most of them don't realize it only takes 30 seconds to set it up and they also don't realize how simple it is to use. That said, Apple Pay will process over 10 BILLION payments in 2019. The reason you probably haven't noticed it is that it is so smooth at most places, especially with the better machines. At Costco, it takes about two seconds for the entire process. As far as reacting to it as it spreads, the vast majority of merchants don't monetize/use the actual financial data. The large ones realize that that game is disappearing and they have jumped on, they know If they want a relationship, they offer loyalty cards and other methods.
Not to be Outdone.. "RpH Media & Design Drops JC Penney as source for new clothing & accessories for his family & freinds." Response: "Two can play that game!"
When they hired Ron Johnson they wanted to move the JCP profile to a younger generation because they realized that the loyal generation that had been shopping with them for years was retiring and would have less money to spend. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in attracting a younger generation. And the changes alienated the once loyal customer base. My mother was one of those shoppers who did not like the changes Ron Johnson implemented. So Ron was ushered out and the old ways crept back in again. JCP is a dead company walking. Never mind the ApplePay loss.
Ron Johnson did make major changes to store design - getting rid of the '40s look. More importantly he went to Every Day Low Prices, lowering prices throughout the store. Customers demonstrated that they preferred higher prices on Sale. When Ron was replaced everything was marked back up again so they could be put on Sale at a price higher than the prices Johnson set. I can remembering walking through the Men's department and all the price tags had the price cut off and a newer price stuck on.
As for dropping Apple Pay, take a look at how much inventory they have and how few sales staff they have to sell. They are, I believe, having sufficient financial problems that push them to drop Apple Pay.
That's from last summer, so you can expect the numbers to be significantly higher now. IME, once you start using Apple Pay on either the iPhone or the Watch, you keep on using it -- so I think it's safe to assume that that those quarter-billion users are using it everywhere they can (and in the US, more than 70 percent of merchants now accept contactless payments, which means Apple Pay works there).
At present, at any given large merchant, Apple Pay specifically is probably under five percent of ALL purchase methods, but contactless is probably more like 25 percent -- it's an extremely popular feature for its speed and lack of PIN entering on purchases under $100, which is the vast majority of purchases. All these figures are growing rapidly, though, and in a few years contactless (combined) will be the majority payment system -- and Apple Pay is the market leader (already) in contactless e-payment.
Frankly, the only reason e-payment hasn't grown much faster is because of Android people, who don't know they could use it, have too many options to choose one, and generally don't take advantage of the full feature set of smartphones, in the main.
JC Penney's full statement is only marginally less deceptive than their initial one. It's good that they clarified that they've just dropped contactless payments outright -- but WHAT "third-party credit brand" has dropped contactless/Apple Pay support? Hint: none.
If you read the statement more carefully, the attempt to blame the "third party" credit processor is as bogus as the company itself: the firm JCP uses for transactions supports contactless and Apple Pay (et al) just fine -- the problem is that JC Penney hasn't updated their terminals in forever (likely a decade), so their antiquated equipment doesn't support the current standard for contactless, and now they've run up against a hard deadline that they can't meet. In short, really bad management.
You would think as a Company not doing all that good, you would want to make things easier. Giving your customers as many ways to pay you money for things. If you limit options, they'll just go someplace else. Seems like a really dumb move to have it and then take it away. It really makes zero sense.
The only thing I think makes sense to them is being able to track users by credit cards and doing everything that goes along with that. Something they can't do with Apple Pay normally.
When new apple card arrives rewarding card holders 2% back to use Apple Pay vs 1% back vs physical card, that will pose a much larger challenge for them to hold out spending the money to upgrade their system.
Comments
Ron Johnson did make major changes to store design - getting rid of the '40s look. More importantly he went to Every Day Low Prices, lowering prices throughout the store. Customers demonstrated that they preferred higher prices on Sale. When Ron was replaced everything was marked back up again so they could be put on Sale at a price higher than the prices Johnson set. I can remembering walking through the Men's department and all the price tags had the price cut off and a newer price stuck on.
As for dropping Apple Pay, take a look at how much inventory they have and how few sales staff they have to sell. They are, I believe, having sufficient financial problems that push them to drop Apple Pay.
That's from last summer, so you can expect the numbers to be significantly higher now. IME, once you start using Apple Pay on either the iPhone or the Watch, you keep on using it -- so I think it's safe to assume that that those quarter-billion users are using it everywhere they can (and in the US, more than 70 percent of merchants now accept contactless payments, which means Apple Pay works there).
At present, at any given large merchant, Apple Pay specifically is probably under five percent of ALL purchase methods, but contactless is probably more like 25 percent -- it's an extremely popular feature for its speed and lack of PIN entering on purchases under $100, which is the vast majority of purchases. All these figures are growing rapidly, though, and in a few years contactless (combined) will be the majority payment system -- and Apple Pay is the market leader (already) in contactless e-payment.
Frankly, the only reason e-payment hasn't grown much faster is because of Android people, who don't know they could use it, have too many options to choose one, and generally don't take advantage of the full feature set of smartphones, in the main.
If you read the statement more carefully, the attempt to blame the "third party" credit processor is as bogus as the company itself: the firm JCP uses for transactions supports contactless and Apple Pay (et al) just fine -- the problem is that JC Penney hasn't updated their terminals in forever (likely a decade), so their antiquated equipment doesn't support the current standard for contactless, and now they've run up against a hard deadline that they can't meet. In short, really bad management.
But then, we knew that.
The only thing I think makes sense to them is being able to track users by credit cards and doing everything that goes along with that. Something they can't do with Apple Pay normally.