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Apple Inc.’s long awaited tap-to-pay on iPhone technology is now live with Adyen NV merchants Vince, Burton, G-Star, and Scotch & Soda. The technology enables merchants to accept face-to-face payments using iPhones without special point-of-sale acceptance hardware. Consumers can use almost any near-field communication-enabled device, such as another iPhone, Apple Watch, a competing mobile phone, or a contactless credit or debit card to pay.
Adyen says an integration with commerce platform NewStore Inc. helped with the launch. Adyen also says the technology will be made available to Nike, and platforms Fresha and Lightspeed Commerce Inc. The payments processor declined to say how many merchants are supporting Tap to Pay with iPhone at this time.
“Our customers expect an elevated in-store experience and we are confident that the ease and convenience of this new payment option will resonate with both current and new Vince shoppers,” Jack Schwefel, Vince chief executive, said in a statement.
Adyen’s launch of the service will aid the company, suggests Jordan McKee, principal analyst, digital payments, at New York City-based S&P Global Market Intelligence.
It will “play an important role in building out Adyen’s payments offering for platform businesses,” McKee tells Digital Transactions News in an email. “Platform businesses that use Adyen for payment processing will be able to leverage the capability to offer a low-cost in-person payment-acceptance option for their SMB customers. There is also applicability for Adyen’s enterprise customers, who can easily scale up use cases like line-busting and pop-up shops without the need to purchase additional point-of-sale hardware.”
Apple announced Tap to Pay with iPhone earlier this year. Merchants using Tap to Pay on iPhone will be able to unlock contactless payment acceptance through a supporting iOS app on an iPhone XS or later device. At checkout, the merchant will prompt the customer to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch to pay with Apple Pay, their contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet near the merchant’s iPhone, and the payment will be completed using near-field communication (NFC) technology. Apple said all Tap to Pay on iPhone transactions will be encrypted and processed using the secure element in iPhone. Unlike other smart phone-based POS services, Apple’s service doesn’t require a POS acceptance dongle.
Adyen says the tech will make in-person payments easier, help with line busting, and ease installation and onboarding for merchants, among other features.
Other payment processors currently supporting Tap to Pay on iPhone are Stripe and Square. Apple’s Web page for developers indicates five others expect to adopt the technology, including Chase, Fiserv’s Clover, GoDaddy, North American Bancard, and FIS Inc.’s Worldpay.
In addition to payment acceptance, Tap to Pay on iPhone also can be used to validate payment cards for such applications as adding a payment method for recurring transactions and to look up previous purchases.
