Nowadays, people live in a highly technological world that seemed to be impossible a few decades ago. Nowadays, people can cure serious diseases, travel for significant distances over short periods of time, and talk almost to any person on Earth via their mobile phones. Besides, these tiny gadgets offer limitless possibilities to their users, including an opportunity to conduct payments. Thus, Apple Pay is an accessible technology that provides numerous people with an option to pay for something using their iOS devices instead of cash. Even though this payment technology is quite requested nowadays, it regularly faces specific issues that should be handled properly.
Key Marketing Strategy Issues
Over its lifetime, Apple Pay has witnessed many issues, and some of them are relevant even today. According to Gupta, Santana, and Rodriguez (2015), competition is the most crucial among them. In the mid-2010s, Apple competitors in the target market, including Samsung and Google, designed and launched their own payment technologies (Gupta et al., 2015, p. 10). That state of affairs was not pleasant for Apple, but they did not worry much about it. In the company, they were sure that they would be able to beat their rivals.
Users’ information security is the second essential issue Apple Pay should handle. The fact is that it is necessary to input both payment details and personal data to allow the technology to work. This fact, in turn, creates some potential for fraudsters who prefer stealing the money of others. In Apple, they understand this danger and try to do their best to prevent possible problems by introducing modern solutions (Gupta et al., 2015). However, it does not mean that it is necessary to forget about personal measures for financial safety.
In addition to that, Apple has faced a psychological issue that, however, resulted from technological peculiarities of Apple Pay. Thus, it refers to a service encounter and its actual outcome. On the one hand, when a successful contact occurs, users feel “satisfaction through an elevated sense of coolness” (Liu & Mattila, 2019, p. 268). On the other hand, a failed encounter leads to a sense of embarrassment (Liu & Mattila, 2019). These different feelings appear depending on the technological performance of Apple Pay. Thus, it is necessary to make the payment technology better to satisfy its numerous users.
Recommendations
All the issues above should be handled according to particular recommendations. As for the market competition, it is possible to get an advantage over all those rivals by introducing better services. Even though it sounds simple, it requires a large team of experts who can add advanced solutions to the existing problems. Then, the information security is now at a decent level in Apple Pay, but it does not mean fraudsters do not become smarter. It is always reasonable to keep on working at better and more reliable security. Contributing to users’ better psychological state can be achieved by improving software performance. If there are no bugs, all the users will be satisfied. Thus, the recommendations on how to handle the issues can be summarized by saying that Apple should always keep on improving the technical performance of its payment software.
Revitalizing Strategies
To stay afloat, the company needs to develop and implement effective long-term strategies that cover various aspects. Thus, the best plan for the same target market is to widen Apple Pay sphere of application. Nowadays, it is possible to use this payment technology in restaurants, boutiques, grocery stores, and others, but this list must grow to attract more users and beat competitors. Thus, a constant search for new partners is the primary strategy to revitalize Apple Pay.
It is also necessary to create strategies aimed at alternative markets, which can be considered as a foundation for further extensive development. The first strategy is to cancel the limitations referring to what devices can work with Apple Pay. As is clear, the payment technology is available for iOS users now. If it becomes possible to download the software on, for example, Android devices, its media outreach will become much higher. Besides, this strategy will undermine the competitors’ positions in the market. The primary purpose of the second strategy is to bring the product to different markets and even countries by canceling the existing geographical limitations. Yes, Apple Pay is highly requested in the USA, but many countries in Northern and Southern America cannot enjoy its advantages. Thus, considerable work, both diplomatic and technological, should be performed to bring these strategies to life.
Conclusion
Apple Pay is an accessible payment technology in the USA and the whole world. Over its history, however, its developers have faced numerous issues affecting different aspects. Thus, current problems are competition in the market, personal information security, and psychological outcomes for users. There are particular recommendations on how it is possible to handle these issues. In addition to that, three long-term strategies are designed to revitalize the product in the same target and alternative markets.
References
- Gupta, S., Santana, S., & Rodriguez, M. L. (2015). Apple Pay. Harvard Business School, 516(027), 1-20.
- Liu, S. Q., & Mattila, A. S. (2019). Apple Pay: Coolness and embarrassment in the service encounter. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 78, 268-275.