The Home Depot announces plans to officially support Apple Pay
There’s a much better reason why the Home Depot recently switched off unofficial support for Apple Pay. The home improvement retailer has just confirmed to Bloomberg that it will rollout official support for the mobile payment system at its more than 2,000 stores across the United States.
A spokesman for the retailer declined to offer a rollout time frame. But when complete, the company would be the largest retailer in the United States to support the option. Here’s more from the report:
Customers already were able to use Apple Pay at some of Home Depot’s stores, although an agreement with Apple wasn’t in place. The world’s largest home-improvement retailer could accept mobile payments because its checkout terminals have near-field communication readers. Those devices have been turned off during the upgrade.
Just last week, Best Buy announced that it would also support Apple Pay at retail stores starting this fall.
In-store payments can be made with an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, or the new Apple Watch. The two handsets, along with the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, can be used to make Apple Pay online purchases.
Originally hitting the United States last fall, Apple Pay could finally be expanding to Canada sometime before November. The service is also expected to arrive at some point in the United Kingdom and China.
Another group of retailers, led by behemoth Walmart, are planning their own mobile payment system called CurrentC.
