The American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services is in news for, announcing the acceptance of Apple (AAPL, Financial) Pay in its more than 2000 stores making it the largest retailer so far to accept Apple Pay, and on the other hand, denial of Apple Pay at the company’s stores stating there is no set timeline for acceptance of Apple Pay as of now.
If it’s a yes
Headquartered in Georgia, US, Home Depot (HD, Financial) operates many big-box format stores across 50 US states. It is the largest home improvement retailer in the US as per revenues. Although the spokesperson for the company stated that the deal hasn’t been done yet, but he gave positive feedback on the same. Currently, its stores are accepting PayPal (PYPL, Financial) and the company is also looking forward to accepting other mobile payments as well.
Explaining how the service works, Apple Pay enables users to make in-app and in-store purchases through their smartphones and the recently launched Apple watch across near field communications (NFC) terminals throughout the US. The service soon gained much popularity for it being contactless payment service and is now associated with major card networks, banks and retailers as well. Though an official deal hasn’t been struck yet, some of the Home Depot stores are offering the service whose checkout terminals have near-field communications readers. The company however has shut it down with a reasoning that an up-gradation is to occur at its point-of-sale system, which is said to have been misunderstood as dissolving of Home Depot-Apple deal by many analysts and market observers.
Other companies offering Apple Pay service in the market include Macy’s Inc. (M, Financial) and Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM, Financial) Under the Merchant Customer exchange founded in 2012 by Wal-Mart stores Inc. (WMT, Financial) and Target Corp. (TGT, Financial), many other retailers are looking forward to have mobile payment option on board.
Banks and credit card companies in the country are quite upbeat about Apple Pay while Apple too looks forward to explain the said service. The mobile payment market in the country, which is expected to process sales worth $67 billion this year as per Forrester research, is going to have fast paced growth if companies like Apple get into it. The key competitor Samsung (SSNLF, Financial) too is going to launch Samsung Pay on similar lines by the third quarter this year in the US and Korea.
Negative response to Reddit user
Whether it’s a confusion or reality, some of the market analysts are calling the unofficial partnership between Apple and Home Depot to end soon courtesy an email received by a Reddit customer from Home Depot on asking why Apple Pay wasn’t operational at their store. There have also been reports of Apple stating that Home Depot chain “might not currently be set up” for the usage of Apple Pay.
Officially, no announcement has been made by either of the companies and perhaps its just rumors doing the rounds. But analysts are still of the view that Home Depot intends to discontinue Apple Pay gradually and focus on eBay Inc.’s (EBAY, Financial) PayPal payment option. Even the Reddit page had reviews stating Apple Pay is giving no problems at Home Depot stores but the reason why the company itself is denying of the service can be related to the data breach, which occurred last year. Home Depot perhaps is concerned about the security of Apple Pay as the company had to face a lot of criticism following the largest data breach in the retail history happening last year at its store. Almost 56 million credit cards and 53 million customer email accounts were affected in that.
Apple Pay’s efforts
Even if Home Depot turns down Apple Pay, there is no looking back for the mobile giant as a lot of other companies are ready to accept Apple Pay happily. Launched last year, Apple Pay soon gained popularity and is currently planning to expand in Canada. In US, Apple Pay got associated with Best Buy Inc. (BBY, Financial) last month as well as the fourth largest card network company Discover (DFS, Financial) is going to adopt it by this fiscal year.
