Apple Pay POS Integration Made Easier

Merchant Link, a payment and data security solutions provider, will be supporting Apple Pay as part of its recently released contactless payments solution for its MICROS integrated POS systems.

Merchant Link has already been offering contactless solutions, a Verticle Systems Reseller article reported, but for years there hasn’t been much interest from customers. That’s changed with Apple Pay. After testing Apple Pay’s transaction processing, it has been approved for POS systems certified by Merchant Link for contactless payments.

“Contactless payments are not new, however until the release of Apple Pay we had not seen a high demand for this,” Laura Kirby-Meck, EVP Sales & Marketing at Merchant Link said in the article.  “Most of our current contactless deployments are in ballparks and quick service restaurants where speed is essential. Apple added extra layers of security with additional tokens and thumbprint verification, and their customers appear to be eager to enroll in the service. Having the ability to anticipate the market needs and demand for solutions is part of our overall business strategy.  We work closely with our VAR partners and our merchants to understand and provide what is important to them and their customers.”

Some in the industry remain skeptical about contactless payments, but others say Apple’s move into the market should give new life to the concept of contactless smartphone payments. The rate of acceptance is expected to grow as NFC-enabled mobile devices continue to enter the market.

“Many of our customers have been accepting contactless payments for a while.  The launch of Apple Pay has created a new demand for contactless acceptance that ensures NFC’s place in the mobile payments ecosystem,” Geoff Krieg, VP of Strategic Alliances said in the article. “We are excited to support merchants that want to accept Apple Pay, and any VAR/iPOS partner that has certified to Merchant Link’s contactless specifications will be able to process this new payment type.”