Apple Pay adoption and use continues to wane

Is the novelty of Apple Pay fading? Recent data from PYMNTS.com shows both adoption and use of the mobile payment feature have decreased in the past year.

by Helen Leggatt

PYMNTS.com's latest quarterly mobile payments adoption study is out, and it reveals, says PYMNTS.com's founder Karen Webster, "that the already disappointing Apple Pay performance was being taken to a new level: Consumer adoption and usage moved from flatline to decline".

The data shows that the percentage of iOS users that have tried Apple Pay fell to 21.9% in March, 2017 from 23.8% in June last year. Furthermore, of those that have used Apple Pay, just 18.7% said they "use it at every opportunity" compared with 48% who said so a year earlier.

An interesting observation from the data is that it is not security concerns or a lack of awareness that is stalling adoption - it's that almost half (48.6%/March 2017) are satisfied with their current payment methods.

"What we see from our data is that consumers with phones that have the Apple Pay app and who shop in a store that accepts it know they can use it, know that it will work and 80% of them feel safe doing so," said Webster. "They just think what they're using instead - the dowdy plastic card - is just fine - and have decided not to use Apple Pay. They've simply chosen not to use Apple Pay."