Paying with an iPhone or Apple Watch has become an increasingly familiar experience for Portuguese consumers.
Today, Apple Pay is available through several banks and card issuers in Portugal and allows quick, secure payments in apps and online stores.
For anyone running an online store, offering this option means giving customers a simple, familiar payment method, especially when they shop using Apple devices.
In this article, find out how Apple Pay works, where it can be used and how to start accepting it in your business.
What is Apple Pay and how does it work?
Apple Pay is Apple’s digital wallet, which lets you make payments using devices such as an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad or Mac, with eligible cards added to Apple Wallet. Compared with using a card directly, the main difference is how your details are protected.
Instead of the real card number being shared with the merchant during payment, Apple Pay uses tokenisation, replacing the card details with an identifier used to process the transaction. This way, the real card number is not shared with the merchant during payment.
How do you pay with Apple Pay in Portugal?
To use Apple Pay, the consumer first adds an eligible card to the Wallet app on a compatible Apple device. From there, the process depends on the context of the purchase:
- In a physical store, the customer authenticates the payment and holds their iPhone or Apple Watch near a terminal that supports contactless payments;
- In an online store or app, when Apple Pay is available as a payment option, the customer selects this method at checkout and authorises the transaction using their device.
Either way, customers can complete a purchase without having to enter their card details manually at checkout.
Which Portuguese banks support Apple Pay?
Apple Pay is available through several banks and card issuers in Portugal. Availability may depend on the institution and the card used.
To check whether a specific card is compatible, consumers should consult the official list of participating banks and issuers provided by Apple.
Which shops accept Apple Pay?
In physical shops, Apple Pay can be used at establishments with contactless-enabled terminals, provided the payment network associated with the card being used is also accepted. For online shopping, the store has to offer Apple Pay as an option at checkout.
To do so, the merchant can use a payment provider that supports Apple Pay, such as easypay.
What are the advantages of Apple Pay?
For consumers, Apple Pay can make the moment of payment simpler, as it offers:
- Speed: it reduces the number of steps needed to complete the payment;
- Security: the real card details are not shared with the merchant during the transaction;
- Convenience: it lets you use cards already added to Wallet, without having to find them or enter them again;
- Less manual data entry: particularly relevant at an online store’s checkout.
For businesses, offering Apple Pay means adding one more option to the checkout and providing a payment experience especially suited to consumers who use Apple devices.
By reducing the need to enter card details manually, Apple Pay can also help to reduce friction at the moment of payment.
Is Apple Pay secure?
Apple Pay uses several security mechanisms to protect payment data.
One of the main technologies used is tokenisation. Instead of transmitting the real card number to the merchant, an identifier is used that allows the payment to be processed without exposing the real card details. Payment is authorised using the authentication mechanisms available on the Apple device.
For merchants, this makes it possible to offer a simple payment experience without directly receiving the customer’s real card number.
How do you accept Apple Pay in your online store?
You don’t need to develop a payments integration directly with Apple to offer Apple Pay to your customers. With easypay, Apple Pay is available through the easypay checkout and compatible plugins, allowing you to offer this wallet alongside other payment methods.
easypay supports Apple Pay in its checkout and also allows it to be used through integrations with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce.
For stores with a custom integration through the easypay API, Apple Pay can also be offered through the easypay checkout. This way, the business can centralise different payment methods in a single solution, instead of developing and managing each integration separately.
Accept Apple Pay with easypay
With easypay, you can offer Apple Pay, Google Pay, MB WAY, Multibanco References, Visa and Mastercard, among other payment methods, through a single solution.
Apple Pay is available in the easypay checkout and in plugins for e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce, letting you add this option to the payment experience without developing an integration directly with Apple.
In addition to ease of integration, easypay provides a payments infrastructure with PCI compliance, centralising different payment methods in a single solution. More options for the customer, less complexity for the business.
Want to accept Apple Pay in your store? Talk to easypay.
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