Mobile payments are slow to catch on among the general population, but early adopters of the Apple Watch are also rapidly adopting Apple Pay, research suggests. Among those who are using Apple Pay, they report it’s making a difference in their everyday life.
In August 2015 polling by Wristly, 80% of Apple Watch owners were using Apple Pay. That’s up to five times the rate of Apple Pay usage among iPhone owners more broadly—and a quarter of Wristly respondents who had used Apple Pay said they had tried it for the first time on their Apple Watch.
Those who were using Apple Pay were most likely to be incorporating the service into their everyday lives. Four in five said they used it for everyday shopping activities, like going to the grocery store. And three in five said they used it for common services like their morning coffee.
This was far more common than using Apple Pay for large, unusual purchases, or for in-app purchases like using Uber.
Reasons Apple Watch Owners Worldwide Have Not Used Apple Pay, Aug 2015 (% of respondents)
Those respondents who hadn’t used Apple Pay were potentially open to it—29% said the main thing holding them back was lack of support from their bank. Another 18% said it was not available in their local market. Education is still an issue, though: Nearly one in five said they did not know where they could use it.
According to Boston Retail Partners and Mozu, that may be because not many places accept Apple Pay yet. In July, just 7% of retailers surveyed in North America currently accepted it. Nearly two-thirds planned to implement Apple Pay over the next two years, however.
