4 Ways to Get More Customers Paying with Apple Pay

If you’ve paid attention to small business news recently, then you’ve probably read that Apple Pay has been taking off quite quickly over the last month or two, and is expected to be the mobile payments market leader very soon.

We previously outlined the reasons why you should consider accepting Apple Pay at your small business. Hopefully you were able to take heed of that information and get ahead of the curve. Now it’s time to tackle the ways in which you can get more of your customers paying with Apple Pay. It is certainly advantageous for your business if utilized properly, as we briefly touched on in the aforementioned blog post. Here are 4 ways to get more of your customers using it now

Line Busting

Nothing will encourage your customers to adopt something more than saving them time at checkout. People love to shop, but no one enjoys waiting in line to pay when they’ve found what they were looking for. If your store is busy, consider setting up an ‘express’ register for mobile payment users. Set up your iPad stand and your Apple Pay reader, and give customers – especially those in a rush – a real reason to use it. You’ll be surprised to see how many people give it a try or even just watch to see how easy it is when someone else does it.

Educate Your Social Following

One of the big challenges that Apple Pay and every other mobile payment system has faced is a lack of education around the true benefit of using a phone to pay. People are aware of the improved speed and reduction of fraud, but they don’t quite see the need to let go of what they’re accustomed to. A little education to your customer network can go a long way.

Now I know that you’re thinking, “I’m not a payment expert, I’m a small business owner – how am I going to educate my customers?” The answer is you don’t have to be an expert on the topic to educate your customers. You just need to capitalize on your relationship with them and simply share information. The experts have already done the research, and there is already a ton of information out there about the benefit of using it as a customer. Just search for published articles and share it with your customers on social media. If they find it interesting, they may ‘like’ your post or comment on it, and that conversation around this is exactly what you want.

Tie It Into Your In-Store Promotions

Although Apple Pay is already very popular, many of your customers aren’t expecting you to have it yet. They’re most likely thinking it’s something that’s only available at popular fast food chains and retailers, not their neighborhood small business. That’s a major reason why many small businesses haven’t seen any uptick and perhaps feel that it isn’t relevant to their market, albeit false.

Of these 4 tips, this is the easiest for you to do. Simply make the announcement to your network of customers that you now accept Apple Pay and pair it with messaging from one of the other tips, line busting or in-store promotions, which you’ll read about below. We’ve seen several ShopKeep customers post about it on their social networks and get both engagement and ‘likes’ from it. Post it to your website or blog, if you have one. Lastly, the most overlooked but effective method is none other than posting it in your store! You can have a sign at the entrance or at the counter.

Make Announcements

In the first section above, line busting, I stated that nothing will give your customers a greater incentive to use something at your store than saving them time at checkout. I stand corrected – saving money will always be the greatest incentive to a customer!

The fact is you’re enjoying two clear benefits by getting your customers to use Apple Pay: 1) you’re drastically cutting the transaction time, allowing you to take more customers in a given period; and 2) you’re reducing the likelihood of fraud against your customers, as Apple Pay is proven to be more secure than standard credit card transactions. So, if you didn’t think that it was worthwhile to give discounts to customers for simply paying with a certain method, reconsider the increased number of customers that you can serve because of the time you’re cutting on each transaction. It will in fact positively impact your bottom line if you do it well.

Give these four things a try at your store and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent is a small business advocate who uses his background in the startup space, along with his POS system expertise, to allow small business owners to make informed decisions within their specific budgets.