Microsoft should not waste time on Microsoft Wallet when Apple Pay gets hardly any use

Microsoft has recently hinted that they may be getting into the mobile payments area, emulating Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Now a major US retailer American Eagle has revealed consumer take up of Apple Pay is “very, very low” at only 1% of transactions, suggesting Microsoft should likely waste their time elsewhere.

Less than 1% of sales at the mall mainstay are made using Apple Pay, compared to about 30% that still use cash and the majority made via a classic credit or debit card swipe, Joe Megibow, American Eagle’s chief digital officer, revealed on Monday.

“The adoption rates are very, very low right now,” Megibow said during at appearance at the Money 20/20 Conference in Las Vegas.

Other early supporter Whole Foods Markets disclosed that 2% of its sales in March were made via Apple Pay.

According to research by Phoenix Marketing International only 14% of households in US used Apple Pay once in the past year, up from 13% in July and 11% in February, indicating slower adoption of the technology.

“There is still present the same level of friction now,” Greg Weed, director of card research at Phoenix, said at the Money 20/20 conference. For example, in the latest survey, slightly over half of users, 53%, reported going to a store expecting to be able to use Apple Pay only to be turned down. That figure was up from 47% in February. And 65% had trouble completing a transaction at the point of sale, down slightly from 68% in February.
Apple is famous for jumping into a technology “at the right time” and perfecting the user experience, but it seems in this case they, like everyone else, jumped too soon, at least in USA.

This may be one Microsoft is better off sitting out. Do our readers agree?

[source link=”https://beta.finance.yahoo.com/news/usage-of-apple-pay-is-miniscule-at-early-backer-american-eagle-191023115.html”]Yahoo Finance[/source]