The 3 Features in iOS 16 That Will Impact Retail and E-Commerce

Whenever Apple has a new release of iOS, there’s always huge fanfare amongst consumers on the experience improvements that they’ll achieve using an Apple iPhone or iPad. There is a significant impact on retail and e-commerce as well, though, that’s often understated in the thousands of articles written around the web.

iPhones still dominate the United States market with 57.45% of the share of mobile devices – so enhanced features that impact retail and e-commerce will have a direct and dramatic impact on those businesses.

In my opinion, there are features in iOS 16 that will have a huge impact on small businesses and e-commerce, including:

Apple Pay Later

Apple Pay Later enables a consumer to use Apple Pay but spread their payments across 4 payments. In a difficult economy, this may drive some increased sales for e-commerce and retailers as consumers tighten their belts and try to stretch their paychecks. The best part of this for the business is that they get paid immediately and Apple takes on the risk.

Apple Pay Order Tracking

Consumers are getting more and more frustrated with e-commerce shipping notifications that aren’t easy to find and track. At times, I get them via email, sometimes by SMS, and others through Shipping apps. With Apple Pay, you’ll be able to track your orders and view your receipts directly in Wallet.

Apple Tap to Pay

Apple is now jumping into the Point of Sale (POS) industry, enabling merchants across the US, from small businesses to large retailers, to use their iPhone to accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets through a simple tap to their iPhone — no additional hardware or payment terminal needed. In my opinion, this is huge as the Point of Sales industry has been selling overpriced, poorly supported, and horribly developed hardware and software for decades.

According to Apple, Tap to Pay on iPhone will work with contactless credit and debit cards from leading payment networks, including American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa.

iOS 16 is expected to be released in September of 2022, so we may see some significant adoption and impact by Black Friday for the 2022 holiday season.

See The Full List of iOS 16 Features

Photo Credits: All images were acquired from Apple.