How Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s Apple Pay Changes the Game for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers?

Almost everyone believes that Apple Pay will be a hugely successful product from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), but can it also be a product that will change the fortune of retailers? The retail industry is facing a tough time, which is evident from the declining comp sales numbers from most of the retailers. Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Apple Pay can’t make sales for the retailers, one thing it can do is provide them with data of how consumers shop, which can be used to make targeted sales. Dorothy Mattison, Senior Managing Partner at Guggenheim Partners, and Joe Gromek, Chairman of Tumi Holdings Inc (NYSE:TUMI), were recently on Bloomberg to discuss how Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s new payment mechanism can help brick-and-mortar retailers.

“I think it’s a way to take a very exiting brand, through very exciting series of products into every retailer in every mall. I think, that’s a huge gift, it’s a great way to take something that’s very intimate in consumers’ lives and turn something very functional like paying at the register into something kind of exciting and if you will, whimsical and gimmicky,” Mattison said.

She feels that since Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Apple Pay uses the same chip-and-pin and EMV technology that is being used and implemented by major card companies, it won’t face any problem in being adapted by most mall-based stores. According to her, nowadays when e-commerce companies are growing at the cost of brick-and-mortar stores, it’s only by adapting new technologies like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Apple Pay, the brick-and-mortar retailers can ensure can get an edge over their e-commerce counterparts.

Gromek mentioned that he recently read that there are around 220,000 retailers who presently can process transactions through Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Apple Pay, but it has the potential to be adapted by over 9 million brick-and-mortar stores. He also mentioned having read that the costs involved for retailers to configure Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s payment system at their store is quite. To this, Mattison replied that it might be expensive, but it would be even more expensive from the point of view of retailers, if they don’t use a technology being used by their most affluent customers.

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