Much has been made of Apple Pay's near-field abilities, but the growth of the mobile payment platform is getting a back-end boost from app developers who see the potential in monetizing the system's reach to remote merchants.
When Apple Pay was unveiled, Apple CEO Tim Cook was so enthused about the platform's ability to communicate wirelessly with point-of-sale systems that he showed the feature's demo reel twice. A touch of a finger and a wave of an iPhone was all it took to check out at a store in the video.
Despite initial woes with transactions conducted through near-field communications and a stint of double-charges, the early numbers on Apple Pay are proving people at least want to believe in the evolution of financial transactions. While users are willing to work fingerprinting and waving into the shopping routines, developers are leveraging the tokenization and remote networking abilities to expand Apple Pay's utility.
SpotHero and RadPad are two examples of developers who are using Apple Pay's remote-networking abilities to make the platform more useful to consumers. SpotHero, a company that started out helping people find the most economical parking spots, has implemented Apple Pay into its software to enable consumers to settle up on parking without have to interact with a meter or a lot attendant.
"Research revealed that 46 percent of our mobile app users have an Apple Pay-eligible device, so the decision to move to the payment system felt like a natural progression," said Mark Lawrence, CEO of SpotHero. "Some of our best customers are early adopters, so it's important for us to provide the latest technology for the best parking experience possible."
RadPad, meanwhile, leverages remote payment and Apple's "tokenization" system. Apple didn't invent tokenization, but the concept makes Apple Pay compatible with merchants that don't accept NFC transactions or any form of electronic payment.
RadPad enables consumers to cut rent checks by simply signing off with a scan of a finger. RadPad redeems the tokens from Apple and then sends out a physical check to landlords, allowing Apple Pay users to pay rent from any location covered by a wireless signal.
Tokenization keeps sensitive information out of the hands of merchants, who often lack for consumer trust when there's considerable distance between the two parties. Remote transactions are expected to out-pace the growth of face-to-face purchases in five years time, due to the assurance of knowing financial details are safe when conducting business remotely.
While face-to-face mobile payment sales are expected to grow to $16.8 billion by 2019, remote transactions are projected to swell to $90.7 billion in the same time frame, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
