Apple Pay coming to mobile websites before holiday shopping season

Apple Pay is finally ready to move beyond apps. Apple has been telling potential partners that its payment service, which lets shoppers complete a purchase on mobile apps with their fingerprint rather than by entering credit card details, is expanding to websites later this year, multiple sources told recode.net.

The service will be available to shoppers using the Safari browser on models of iPhones and iPads that possess Apple’s TouchID fingerprint technology, these people said. Apple has also considered making the service available on Apple laptops and desktops, too, though it’s not clear if the company will launch that capability.

Apple is targeting a major pain point for e-commerce merchants and consumers alike, eliminating the need for multiple form-filling and cumbersome security procedures when shopping online. While mobile shopping is booming, it can be a frustrating experience, resulting in high rates of shopping cart abandonment.

Apple will be competing directly with PayPal, whose One Touch payment system has experienced rapid adoption since it was first introduced ten months ago. The company says 18 million consumers have now opted-in globally, and that more than 50 percent of the Internet Retailer 500 in the US and more than a million merchants around the world have enabled the service.

PayPal One Touch may be the most obvious success story, but cracking the one-click shopping experience is also a major target for the card schemes and other Internet giants like Google and Amazon.

Sources say that Apple is telling potential partners that the Apple Pay expansion to mobile websites will be ready before this year’s holiday shopping season. An announcement could come at WWDC, Apple’s conference for software developers, which typically takes place in June, though sources cautioned that the timing of an announcement could change.

PayPal’s shares slumped by 8.7% on the news, according to finextra.com.