Apple Pay’s large acceptance network and user base could make it a formidable player in the buy now, pay later space—posing a major threat to incumbent BNPL providers and credit cards.

The pandemic accelerated payments industry digitization across the entire landscape, as merchants turned to ecommerce to keep doors open, consumers eschewed cash in favor of electronic and contactless payments, and payments technology providers rapidly developed and launched new solutions to keep up.

Visa announced that usage of its contactless cards in the US was up 150% year over year last March, and Mastercard reported about a 40% increase in contactless payments in Q1 2020. “While some of this was driven by contactless cards, what also spurred usage growth was increased adoption of cards in mobile wallets,” Orozco said.

The US has been relatively late in introducing contactless cards, which are credit or debit cards that include a near field communication (NFC) chip that can complete a transaction simply by tapping on a reader. But those cards are starting to arrive in the US now that most point-of-sale (POS) systems have the NFC capabilities to accept them.

During the coronavirus pandemic, many consumers have preferred to pay local businesses using traditional payment methods over contactless channels. According to May 2020 polling from Podium, the highest share of US internet users surveyed (42.9%) said they preferred using a credit card reader, with cash coming in second at 18.4%.

The new suite of credit cards could help Synchrony bolster its pandemic recovery by tapping into a top spend segment while entrenching itself as a major player for online-focused co-brand cards.

Co-brand card issuers and brand partners have an opportunity to reimagine their offerings in the pandemic’s wake. Leaning on newfound digitization and shifting spending habits can help providers tailor their offerings in ways that widen their net, grow volume, and appeal to the maximum number of customers.

The QuickBooks Card Reader lets merchants accept contactless payments and chip cards—helping Intuit move further beyond accounting software and into in-store payments.

Older consumers especially have tended to prefer cash to debit or credit cards, and retailers have operated accordingly. When the pandemic struck, both consumers and retailers took some time to adjust. Many retailers needed to increase their support for alternative payment methods (such as contactless payments), for example, or to expand their delivery capacity.