Apple Pay dominates US mobile wallet transaction market for 2020, study finds

Apple Pay seems to have dominated the mobile wallet market for transactions in 2020, reports Apple Insider. 2020 is indeed marked with significant growth of the mobile wallet payments sector due to the pandemic.

Apple Pay transactions account for 92% of mobile debit transactions in the US

A study by Pulse has been published, stated that payments using Apple Pay account for the staggering 92% of all mobile wallet payments in the United States for last year. Pulse is a firm responsible for electronic funds transfers and a subsidiary of Discover Financial Services that serves more than 4,400 financial institutions in the US.

Pulse's annual 2021 Debit Issuer Study, conducted by Oliver Wyman, states that about two billion mobile wallet debit transactions were made in 2020 in the US. These mobile wallet transactions were conducted using either Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, or Google Pay.

This marks a 51% growth of mobile wallet transactions since last year. Apple Pay has majorly outperformed Google and Samsung's mobile wallet solutions across every metric, according to the study, and hit the surprising transaction share of 92%. Samsung Pay managed to get a 5% share of the mobile wallet debit transactions, while Google Pay got only 3%.

Another interesting thing the study found is that the average ticket size increased by 55% from 2019 to 2020, from $15 to $23. Additionally, the overall debit ticket size has also increased in comparison to 2019, from $40.50 to $44.80 in 2020. This shows that consumers have made fewer purchases but with larger transactions.

The change is quite understandable given the situation of 2020. Additionally, last year Apple Pay gained wider retail adoption, further facilitating its use by customers. For example, 74 out of the top 100 US merchants accepted Apple Pay transactions as a payment option, and 65% of all retail locations in the US supported the service.

Quite understandably, these figures show a big improvement from the early days of Apple Pay, when only a few regional merchants and even fewer retails had integrated the technology.

On top of all that, Apple Pay's in-app assets are also contributing to this success, with 57% of mobile wallet transactions accomplished in a supporting app. Of course, we can not take into consideration the fact that the cardholder enrollment in these mobile wallet systems has also risen thanks to customers becoming more familiar with the new type of payment.

Apple Pay is a useful contactless payment app

Apple Pay was first launched in the United States back in 2014 and has since expanded to more countries around the globe. It is a platform that allows you to add your debit or credit card to the Wallet app on your iPhone and then use your device to pay. It provides a faster and easier way to pay without having to deal with cash or cards.

Additionally, Apple Pay has some very useful features, and one of them is Apple Cash. Apple Cash works almost like a debit card, making it possible for you to send and receive money using iMessage.

In line with Apple's privacy stance, Apple Pay provides a secure payment option. When you make a payment, it uses a device-specific number and a unique transaction code, so your card number is never stored on your device or on Apple's servers. Understandably, when you pay with it, your card number is never shared with merchants.

Apart from paying in retailers that support Apple Pay, you can also use it to pay in websites or apps. Additionally, you can also use it to pay for subscriptions such as Apple Music, Apple News+, and Apple TV+.

Currently, Apple Pay is widely supported around the world and can be used not only on iPhone, but also on Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac.