Dive Brief:

• E-commerce platform BigCommerce announced it is now supporting Apple Pay online payments. Merchants may activate the capability via the BigCommerce Control Panel.

• BigCommerce touted the simplicity and security of Apple Pay's Touch ID technology as a reason for supporting the digital payment solution, which is presently limited to Apple's Safari browser. “The single biggest challenge in mobile conversion stems from the difficulty of entering name, address and payment details on a mobile device. Apple Pay on the web solves this problem by removing these steps. This eliminates friction and streamlines checkout, thereby saving sales that would otherwise be postponed or lost,” said Jimmy Duvall, chief product officer for BigCommerce, in a press release.

• BigCommerce's cloud-based platform powers online retail efforts for brands including Toyota, Ubisoft, Gibson, Martha Stewart, Payless and Travelpro.

Dive Insight:

It wasn't stated as such by BigCommerce, but this announcement sure sounds connected to the news from earlier this year in which the company said it was incorporating Square E-commerce and Register software and related solutions that would allow BigCommerce merchants to accept Apple Pay. 

For BigCommerce, supporting Apple Pay is an important move it must make as it seeks to remain competitive with other e-commerce platform companies like Demandware and Shopify, both of whom have already cultivated relationships with Apple and support for Apple Pay.

The payments market is very crowded right now, and it's still difficult to see if retailers in the future will accept a large number of alternative payment methods, including Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samung Pay, Alipay and — well, the list goes on. Or will they decide only to accept a couple those? Or will they instead go the Wal-Mart route and have their own payment app?

What's clear right now is that retailers who are trying to woo smartphone-using customers and get them to make purchases via those phones absolutely need to support at least a few of those options, and Apple Pay and Android Pay may be the most obvious choices. Working with an e-commerce platform that already incorporates these payment technologies is the easiest way for a retailer to do that.

This is also a nice win for Apple, which is seeking to expand its presence on retail websites. Being on the BigCommerce platform may allow it to reach a different segment of merchants, such as independent or small merchants, than it was reaching through other avenues.