Are you comfortable paying for your weekly grocery shop with a mere wave of the wrist? You’ll be able to in a few short weeks when the Apple AAPL -1.3% Watch makes its much-hyped debut.
If you move your Apple Watch-wearing hand anywhere near a store’s payment terminal, mobile wallet system Apple Pay will activate automatically, using your primary credit card to pay for your purchases.
For security purposes, the smartwatch’s sensors will only allow a transaction if the device is on your wrist.
Quick, seamless in-store payment is just one of the reasons retail insiders are bullish on the Cupertino, Calif. gadget giant’s latest release.
“Some people tend to underestimate the potential impact of Apple Watch,” said Christian Gaiser, CEO of coupon app Retale. “This is a total game-changer.”
His company is one of a handful rolling out shopping apps for the smartwatch before it hits shelves on April 24th.
Retale’s location-based deals app will point Apple Watch wearers towards special offers in nearby stores. “When you walk past a Target TGT -0.33% or aKohl's KSS -0.74%, you’ll get an alert on the watch visually,” said Gaiser. The company is currently testing a vibration alert option.
Retailers themselves are getting in on the Apple Watch game early withsmartwatch apps. Target’s app will detect when a wearer is in-store and will guide them towards items on their shopping list, sending an alert when they’re near a product they’ve selected.
Midwestern grocery chain Marsh Supermarkets has already outfitted its 75 stores in Ohio and Indiana with iBeacons that trigger Apple Watch apps thanks to a partnership with mobile marketing company InMarket.
An Apple Watch wearer using InMarket’s List Ease shopping list app will be guided directly to the groceries on their list when they walk into a Marsh store.
The same will go for Apple Watch users who’ve ‘liked’ or ‘favorited’ recipes on cooking apps like Epicurious: they’ll be pointed towards the right ingredients for their meal.
“Think of it as a list on your wrist,” said InMarket’s Dave Heinzinger. “We’re thinking about that Millennial mom, who has a baby on one arm and a shopping basket on the other. Now she doesn’t have to pull out her smartphone.”
Like Retale’s Gaiser, Heinzinger says his company will be carefully gauging shoppers’ reactions to smartwatch alerts.
“We’re figuring out how frequently consumers like to be ‘pinged’,” he said. “If a shopper is overburdened with alerts and you’re over-aggressive, you’ll see dilution happen. That’s bad for everybody.”
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