Expect Apple Pay to become even more prevalent in the United States. The Cupertino company has been aggressively pushing for wider use of its payment systems in the country for years, and now its hard work is finally paying off.
Apple has landed a major partnership with Costco, allowing Apple Pay transactions across all Costco branches in the country. The retail chain also plans to add support to its gas stations, although that hasn't been finalized yet.
Costco Rolls Out Apple Pay Support In All Stores
"We've added additional mobile payment options to make your next visit more convenient," said Costco. "Costco members can now use Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Samsung Pay at U.S. Costco locations." The company says it finished rolling out Apple Pay support in Aug. 10.
MacRumors was the first to report about the rollout. But before implementing Apple Pay, the companies sought to make sure it would work properly. As such, it performed trials in several Costco locations, including the retail chain's corporate headquarters in Washington.
The new partnership, as TechCrunch notes, comes as yet another successful attempt to widen Apple Pay usage. Apple had landed similar deals with other major companies previously, including 7-Eleven and CVS, the latter of which being particularly notable since the retailer vehemently held off on supporting Apple's payments system, to the point where it even created its own barcodes-based alternative. But CVS eventually relented, and both those retailers are scheduled to roll out Apple Pay support sometime later this year.
Apple also landed a deal with eBay this summer, which will certainly give it an added edge on the online retail front, not just brick-and-mortars.
The Rise Of Apple Pay
Apple Pay is currently operational in over 30 countries and is said to account for half of all contactless payments in the United States by 2020, according to a recent analysis.
Between Samsung, Google, and others, Apple is the currently the king of mobile payments. In general, though, contactless payments are expected to become more pervasive in the coming years, with analysts saying it'll reach 450 million consumers.
On a different note, the tap-to-pay functionality of Costco's Anywhere credit cards are now operational as well. Costco launched the Visa-based card a few years ago in partnership with Citi. With it, Costco members can earn 2 percent cashback on purchases from either Costo retail outlets or Costco.com. It also acts as a Costco membership card for entry.
