Tag: Apple Pay

The retailer has decided to take its own direction instead of choosing to accept payments through Apple Pay.

Neiman Marcus, the luxury retailer, has now joined forces with Capital One in order to create its own mobile wallet so that its credit card customers will be able to use an app on their smartphones in order to pay for purchases while in store.

At first, the mobile app will be available only as an iOS application, so it will be for iPhone users.

This mobile wallet app will integrate with a number of different credit cards, including the Neiman Marcus card, in addition to Bergdorf Goodman, American Express, MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. Similar to Apple Pay, it will make it possible for customers to be able to buy items, in-store, without having to use their actual plastic credit cards. At the moment, the app won’t support the use of gift cards.

This helps to explain why Neiman Marcus chose not to sign on with the Apple Pay mobile wallet.

It is clear that the retailer preferred to create its own competing mobile payments platform. That said, what is quite interesting about this application, and what makes it very different from Apple Pay is that it is compatible with more versions of the smartphone. At the moment, Apple Pay can be used only with the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. However, the mobile payments wallet from Neiman Marcus will be available to users of several different versions of that iOS based smartphone.

While Apple Pay may be the most well recognized and visible smartphone wallet, there isn’t a single app in this space that has reached the point that it can say that it can block out most other competing applications that are hoping to make their way into this space.

Neiman Marcus isn’t the only one to choose not to sign on with Apple and that has decided to create its own mobile wallet. Starbucks – the company that is typically considered to be the most successful mobile payments venture in the United States – has also done so, as have Walmart, Exxon Mobil, 7-Eleven, and Southwest Airlines.

Apple’s payment service becomes more popular in the US market

Apple Pay is taking over the mobile payments space, while its potential rivals struggle to find traction with consumers. The service launched in October of last year, and has managed to acquire a strong amount of support in a relatively short period of time. Retailers have partnered with Apple to support the payment service, hoping that it will allow them to connect with consumers that like to shop from their mobile devices.

Apple Pay accounts for two-thirds of all mobile payments made in the US

According to the Robert Baird analyst group, Apple Pay now accounts for two-thirds of the mobile payments market in the United States. For the retailers that supported Apple Pay at launch, mobile payment volume has increased by a significant margin. Whole Foods, one of Apple Pay’s launch partners, has reported that the mobile payments it has received have grown by more than 400%. Other retailers have reported similar results because of the payment service and its ability to connect with mobile consumers.

Low number of vendors may continue to support Apple Pay

Though Apple Pay is being supported by some big-name retailers, there are still a relatively small number of vendors that use the payment service. Analysts believe that there will be relatively little change in this trend in the coming years. Mobile payments are quite attractive to retailers, but this does not mean that these businesses will support Apple Pay specifically. There are other payment services that offer features that could be more attractive to certain types of businesses and these services are available for the Android platform. Apple Pay is only available for iOS devices.

Apple may have some competition coming from Samsung in the future

Apple Pay’s growing popularity may be stymied in the future by the launch of other payment services. Samsung is rumored to be releasing its own mobile payments service in the near future. Both Apple and Samsung have been competitive with one another in the mobile technology space for years, with Samsung having recently established a modest lead in the device market.