This week has been a big one for world news, what with a drunken squirrel causing £300 worth of damage at a private club in Worcestershire and Amber Heard illegally smuggling Johnny Depp’s dogs into Australia. We would hate to take the limelight away from these pressing matters but we thought the multi-million pound influx the British highstreet could be about to receive might be worth a quick mention.
Yep, that’s right, the UK highstreet could be the heir to a predicted £7.8bn and it’s all down new mobile payment services like Apple Pay. Apple Pay was launched in the UK just this week and has
already enraptured big name brands including Nando’s, Boots and McDonald’s, who are all taking advantage of its new contactless transaction possibilities.
What exactly is Apple Pay?
Well, in a nutshell, Apple Pay is a service that has been rolled out across other parts of the world already and enables one-touch transactions both in store and online. An advanced technological process known as tokenisation is being used to enable these methods of payment which seek to simplify and secure the way we do business today. Touch ID and fingerprint reading technology is being used to verify any transactions processed so it’s all very high-tech, darling.
Similarly to the other methods of contactless payment that are slowly but surely leading the transformation into cashless transactions, Apple Pay requires the customer to simply present their device to a payment terminal in order to complete their purchase. Online transactions are set to be just as seamless and can be completed via apps downloaded to the device. At the moment there is a £20 purchase limit at most terminals but this is expected to increase to £30 by September 2015. However, for those merchants with terminals deemed “capable and configured” in accordance to network specifications, no spending limit applies.
The future is bright for the UK highstreet
New research issued by promo code mobile app RetailMeNot has shown that the British highstreet could benefit from this multi-million pound booster during 2015 if the country’s retailers get on board with mobile payment strategies like Apple Pay. The study, which the group ran in collaboration with the Centre for Retail Research (CRC) revealed that Brits were the biggest mobile shoppers in Europe with a mcommerce spend of £8.4bn in 2014. This figure is set to rocket to a whopping £22.7bn by next year following a predicted 169% growth.
SVP & GM International at RetailMeNot, Giulio Montemagno, said: “Doubling down focus and investments in mobile commerce is more important than ever for retailers: research shows that providing a great mobile experience is a highly effective way to generate customer loyalty.
“The development of mcommerce is not simply a technology development, but a secular change in the consumers’ consumption patterns and therefore should be a change in any retailer’s mind set.”
He later added: “Mobile devices have become an ever more important part in the discovery phase of shopping and retailers who do not adapt their services risk losing out to more innovative competitors.
“If the biggest barrier for consumers is the unsatisfactory performance of mobile sites, this presents a huge opportunity for retailers to integrate mobile into their strategy and see mobile sales boom. Consumers already feel more confident with the idea of buying on mobile this year than they did in 2014; we must keep the momentum and continue to adapt in step with consumers, rather than simply following them.”
A substantial 40% of UK shoppers now expect to make and check reservations on mobile devices and be able to access loyalty schemes from their smartphones or tablets. Feeding consumer demand for more mobile accessibility would be a wise move for the country’s merchants as doing so would provide the UK with the multi-million pound revenue it really needs.