Mobile payments existed before Apple Pay came along, but now that Apple has entered the game, every company is coming out of the woodwork with their own idea of how it should work.
Of course, there are similarities between all of them, even if some offer more security, or features, or peripheral support/bank support/business support than others. Samsung is in on its own mobile payment option, Google has its own with Android Pay. LG, too. And, just recently, Walmart introduced its own Walmart Pay, because why not? And now, according to a new report from Reuters, another big department store chain is about to get in on the fun.
According to the report, the retail chain Target is gearing up to launch its own mobile payment option. It’s noteworthy for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Target is part of the Merchant Customer Exchange, a collection of businesses and other entities that backed the now-out-of-the-news-cycle CurrentC mobile payment option that was supposed to be a huge competitor to Apple Pay. (Best Buy is included in the list of backers for CurrentC, but Best Buy now offers support for Apple Pay at checkout in its stores.)
Target does not offer support for Apple Pay in its stores for customers buying goods within its walls, but it does offer Apple Pay support in its iOS app. And Target’s CEO, Brian C. Cornell, has said in the past that he’s not completely against letting customers use Apple Pay to checkout in the stores, but that support hasn’t rolled out just yet, nor have there been rumors that it might be soon.
However, the initial report suggests Target’s mobile payment option, which doesn’t have a name (Target Pay?), would be available sometime in 2016, and that, like Walmart Pay, would work in its iOS app to let customers buy their goods at the check out register.
What do you think of all these different entities launching their own mobile payment options?
[via Reuters]
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