NFC Times Exclusive – Apple mishandled its rollout of Apple Pay from the standpoint of merchant acceptance, according to a principal with the payments service practice of research firm Phoenix Marketing International, who said a significant percentage of consumers have told the firm they are having trouble finding places to tap their iPhones to pay, along with experiencing other “checkout issues.”
Leon Majors, senior vice president for financial services with the U.S.-based research firm, said surveys of consumers have consistently shown acceptance problems, and he blames Apple for not lining up more merchants to accept Apple Pay before launching the mobile-payments service or better explaining the state of acceptance to consumers.
Majors also says that too many banks seem to be making Apple Pay their sole strategy for rolling out mobile payments, an ill-advised move.
