Dive Brief:

• Only about a quarter of the nation’s top retailers accept Apple Pay so far, and a majority of retailers don’t plan to add it this year, according to reporting from Reuters. 
• Apple CEO Tim Cook dubbed 2015 “the year of Apple Pay,” and a company spokesperson told Reuters earlier this year that half of the top 100 retailers Apple previously spoke to would accept Apple Pay in 2015. 
• According to Reuters, iPhone 6 users haven’t stepped up to be provide Apple Pay with its tipping point; just 6% had used Apple Pay by March, and 85% of those who can use it haven’t. 

Dive Insight:

Apple Pay so far has not attracted widespread adoption in spite of a big marketing push. Only a quarter of the National Retail Federation’s top 100 retailers nationwide support the contactless payment system, according to Reuters, and most of the rest say they won’t add Apple Pay capabilities this year, meaning Apple will likely come up short on its prediction that half of all retailers will be onboard by the end of 2015.

Banks have signed up to support Apple Pay, but merchants don’t seem to be responding to Apple’s marketing push. Retailers note that Apple Pay’s encryption prevents them from tracking customers using credit card data, and many say that the system hasn’t generated enough demand among consumers. A separate survey confirms this complaint: By march, only 6% of iPhone 6 users reported having have tried Apple Pay.