JPMorgan Debuts Tap to Pay for Merchant Clients

J.P. Morgan Payments has debuted a contactless payment solution for its merchant clients.

The new Tap to Pay offering lets merchants accept payments using their iPhones, without the need for a physical terminal, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 22) press release.

“Enhancing the ability for consumers to pay with their preferred method of payment is part of our broader, customer-centric approach to simplify omnichannel payment acceptance for our merchant clients,” said J.P. Morgan Global Head of Payments Takis Georgakopoulos in the release. “As consumer payment needs continue to rapidly evolve, this is a significant demonstration of our ability to innovate at scale to support our merchant clients through this ongoing transformation.”

The new tool will launch at Sephora, rolling out at its freestanding stores in the United States and allowing the retailer’s beauty advisors to accept contactless credit and debit cards, Apple Pay and other digital wallets anywhere in the store, the release said.

“It’s a win-win: our customers get a transparent and secure transaction without waiting in a long queue, and our beauty advisors have more freedom to build meaningful connections with our shoppers,” said Sephora Vice President and Treasurer Stefan Jensen in the release.

J.P. Morgan Payments plans to expand Tap to Pay on iPhone to U.S. merchants throughout the next year, including to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), per the release.

As consumers continue to use their smartphones for everyday businesses, merchants must embrace digital payments capabilities.

“Tap to pay is going to change the payments industry,” PayPal Head of Product for Microbusiness Ed Hallett told PYMNTS in June. “It’s the next disruptive innovation. Looking back 15 years ago, there was an equivalent innovation cycle within card payments around mobile [point of sale (POS)]… You had a real push to unlock large portions of the [SMB] space who previously didn’t take card payments. They were now able to provide that capability.”

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke last week with Eileen Dignen, global head of payments for Corporate Client Banking at J.P. Morgan.

She argued that as consumers discover easy commerce or payment experiences that can be handled on their phones, they’ll wonder why that same ease of use can’t translate to other areas of life — including their interactions with businesses. Companies risk being left behind if they don’t more efficiently serve their clients.