FinTech News

Fewer Merchants Accepting Apple Pay, Google Pay Online

Contrary to the overall trend that finds payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay are expanding, a new study finds that acceptance rates are actually falling among online merchants. This revelation comes from the risk management firm Kount that found many e-retailers were abandoning Apple Pay and Google Pay in favor of other payment options. Specifically their survey found acceptance of Apple Pay among online merchant respondents falling from 48% to 35% while Google Pay’s acceptance dropped from 38% to 25%.

So what’s taking the place of Apple Pay and Google Pay on websites? According to Kount, acceptance of PayPal swelled from 48% to 64% while options such as Visa Checkout, MasterPass, Chase Pay, and Samsung Pay were about flat compared to last year. Additionally AMEX Express Checkout saw a sizeable increase in acceptance, jumping from 9% to 16%.

Despite the drop among online merchants, there is some good news for Apple and Google’s in-store mobile payments. Kount found that support for near-field communication (NFC) technology was up year over year, increasing from 29% to 37%. Both Apple Pay and Google Pay operate using NFC while rivals such as Samsung Pay and retailer-specific options utilize various other technologies to complete transactions. Overall acceptance of mobile wallets was also up among respondents, rising from 22% to 29%.

These figures are emerging on the heels of news that neither Apple nor Google holds the title of most-used mobile payment options. Instead that honor actually goes to Starbucks, whose app integrates loyalty with payments and has found increasing success over the years. Moreover reports suggest that another retailer-specific mobile payment option, Walmart Pay, is gaining ground on Apple Pay in terms of usage.

While it is interesting to see that Apple and Google are apparently losing ground when it comes to e-commerce payments, it seems premature to suggest that this trend would extend to in-store payments. In fact the increased support for NFC that Kount notes shows that brick and mortar retailers are continuing to embrace mobile payments — including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Lastly it’s always important to highlight the methodology for these studies and, in this case, the findings are based on the responses of only 600 merchants. For the record the study was also conducted in association with Braintree, which is a division of PayPal.

All things considered, this Kount survey shouldn’t be seen as a bad sign for mobile payments but a net positive. After all, even if acceptance of some large players may be slipping, they do seem to be replaced by other options. As a result it’s clear that mobile payment options aren’t disappearing — they’re just diversifying.

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