At the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Apple confirmed it. From July, Brits will be able to use Apple Pay to buy goods from retailers including Marks & Spencer, Dune, Lidl, Starbucks, Ocado, Pret, Boots, JD Sports, New Look, Liberty, Waitrose, Spar and Costa.
Available across 250,000 locations, and supported by over 70% of the credit and debit cards in the UK including Visa, Apple Pay will no doubt shake up the way the nation consumes.
The game-changing mobile payment system launched in the US last year alongside the iPhone 6, but has been slow to expand to other regions. Britain is the first country outside America to gain access to Apple Pay, which allows shoppers to pay for products both online and offline, using just their iPhone or Apple Watch.
When used as an offline payment system, Apple Pay works with an NFC (near-field communications) chip found in the two newest iPhone models and the Apple Watch to enable users pay for items by tapping their phones on contactless card readers in stores.
Positioned as one of the UK‘s largest Apple Pay retailers, Marks & Spencer will support the new service across over 620 of its stores.
Laura Wade-Gery, Executive Director Multi-channel at M&S commented: “M&S already has one of the biggest contactless payment estates in the UK and our integration of Apple Pay means we are well set up to cater for customers’ evolving shopping habits.
We‘ve already seen our customers embrace the benefits of contactless technology and mobile payment – and developments like Apple Watch are set to be an exciting part of the future retail landscape, creating even quicker, easier and more convenient ways to shop.”
