NETTING IT OUT

Apple announced Apple Pay on September 9, 2014, along with the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch. Apple Pay will be in use starting October 16, 2014 in at least 220,000 retail locations in the U.S., with many more merchants expected to begin accepting Apple Pay transactions over the next five years.

Apple Pay has garnered the most positive buzz of all the products that Apple announced. What is it about Apple Pay that has struck a chord with industry pundits? It’s not particularly revolutionary technology. There’s nothing brand new. Yet, analysts are already saying that Apple Pay is likely to be more successful than other forms of mobile payment systems, at least in the U.S., if not worldwide. Is it the Apple brand experience that makes Apple Pay seductive, or is there more to it than that?

In this article, we take a look at how well Apple Pay addresses what we believe are consumers’ top showstoppers when it comes to paying from their mobile phones.

The four questions we’ll answer are:

1. How secure is your information if your phone is stolen or hacked?
2. Can you use Apple Pay everywhere you shop?
3. How protected are your phone interactions from spying?
4. How easy is it to change phone brands, wireless carriers, and e-wallets?

Mitigate the Showstoppers First!

Before you can build and evolve a customer ecosystem, you need to address the moments of truth that will stop customers from adopting and using your solutions. Once you identify the critical issues that are likely to keep customers from being successful in getting things done, you can mitigate those issues, either by transforming their fears into positive experiences and/or by understanding and meeting customers’ success criteria.

What Will Keep U.S. Consumers from Adopting Mobile E-Wallets?

 (Download the PDF to for the image.)

We believe that there are four customer-critical issues that need to be addressed proactively to make it easy for U.S. consumers to embrace mobile e-wallets and payment systems:

1. It’s not safe! Fear of theft of assets, account information getting into the wrong hands, and identity theft.
2. I can’t use it! Inability to pay everywhere I want to shop, using my payment type of choice.
3. You’re tracking me! Fear of “big brother” or any entity knowing where I am and what I’m doing and making that information available to others without my knowledge or permission.
4. Lock-In! Once I start using a mobile e-wallet (assuming it’s safe to do so), how easily can I switch?

In this article, we take a look at the new Apple Pay Service. We’ll unpack these consumer showstoppers and discuss ways that Apple Pay alleviates or mitigates customers’ concerns about these issues.

In a companion article, we’ll take a look at the different layers and players in the Apple mobile wallet ecosystem. It’s our conviction that unless all of the players in a customer ecosystem are aligned to address these customer-critical issues, the ecosystem will be...(more)

(Download the PDF to read the entire article.)