Updated! Minneapolis — iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users can now pay for their Best Buy purchases using Apple Pay.
Effective today, the No. 1 CE chain is accepting Apple’s electronic wallet for m-commerce orders made through the retailer’s mobile app. The program is limited to Apple’s two newest iPhone iterations, which are enabled for wireless transactions using near field communication (NFC).
Best Buy said it would extend Apple Pay acceptance to its physical stores later this year.
The move represents a change in policy for Best Buy, which had previously passed on the Apple Pay system in favor of a rival payment platform called CurrentC that is being developed by a retail coalition. The group, called the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), is comprised of 62 merchants including Best Buy, Walmart, Sears, Target and Lowe’s, and plans a limited launch of its mobile wallet later this year.
“Today’s consumers have many different ways to spend their money and we want to give our customers as many options as possible in how they pay for goods and services at Best Buy,” the retailer said in a statement.
The chain added that Apple Pay acceptance is the latest enhancement of its mobile platform, which it described as “an important growth area,” and said that developing and implementing new m-commerce tools will be the main focus of the new tech innovation office it is opening in Seattle this summer.
