Tech giant Apple’s mobile payment system Apple Pay is now accepted at more than 2 million locations across the globe, with more expansions on the way, Bloomberg reported.
Soon, U.S. shoppers will be able to use the service at even more major outlets, including Crate & Barrel, Chick-fil-A and Au Bon Pain, in addition to those like Best Buy who have already enabled Apple Pay compatibility, Bloomberg said.
Earlier this week, online shoe and clothing store Zappos became the latest to support the service when it enabled Apple Pay on its mobile applications.
The news comes in the wake of Apple’s efforts toward the end of 2015 to spur wider-spread adoption of its mobile payment system as it struggled to gain traction and competition from Google’s Android Pay and Samsung’s Samsung Pay intensified.
Unlike Apple and Android Pay, which require NFC payment terminals, Samsung Pay comes with magnetic strip technology that allows it to be accepted nearly anywhere a customer would swipe their credit card.
The lack of an existing NFC payment terminal infrastructure has proven to be a stumbling block for Apple Pay.
Nearly five months after Apple Pay’s October 2014 launch, only 40 percent of iPhone users had upgraded to the Apple Pay-enabled iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, and as of April 2015 less than a quarter of those users had actually tried the service.
A year after the service’s launch, Bloomberg reported that Apple Pay accounted for just one percent of retail transactions in the United States thanks to slow user adoption and a lack of compatible payment terminals.
But Apple has increasingly sought to remove adoption barriers and expand availability of its service.
In November, Apple launched Apple Pay in both Canada and Australia, in both of which “tap” payments were already more prevalent than in the United States.
The following month, Apple announced a partnership with China UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to China. The service is expected to go live in China sometime this year after it clears regulatory hurdles.
In recent months, Apple Pay has started to seal some major U.S. deals as well. Starbucks, KFC, Chili’s, and Target have all either adopted or announced plans to adopt Apple Pay compatibility in their stores.
Filed Under: Apps
