Shopify is letting merchants use NFTs for their customers to unlock special products, perks and experiences.
The idea is that NFTs are a kind of loyalty card that a brand’s top fans can use to access exclusive items.
Despite the crypto crash, Shopify is betting that NFTs will change the way people shop online and in person. The ecommerce giant has a new service to enable customers to use NFTs to unlock special perks, products and real-world experiences with merchants.
Last year Shopify added the ability for merchants to sell NFTs using Shopify so customers don’t have to go to another site to buy them. With this new product, Shopify is taking that a step further through what’s known as “token-gated commerce.” The NFTs can come from anywhere the merchants want.
The idea is that NFTs are a kind of loyalty card — in the form of a cryptographic key — that a brand’s top fans can use to access exclusive items.
The current crash in the crypto markets has hit NFTs as well. But Alex Danco, head of blockchain at Shopify, says he is excited about the current market because it removes distraction and is good for focusing on actual ways NFTs can be used to help merchants and decreases the interest in pure speculation.

As a result, merchants aren’t shying away from NFTs, Danco said. “If anything, it’s the opposite, right? The fact that this is very clearly not about ‘double your money in the next week or whatever by NFTs.’ The fact that it’s not that anymore is actually a great sign for real businesses and real brands.”
Some retailers are dubious, but Danco believes crypto wallets and NFTs will be a big benefit for merchants, once he persuades them to “wander into something that is so drowned out by noise of all of the speculative mania.”
The biggest benefit of crypto and NFTs is crypto wallets, he said. “Everybody sort of jokes about ‘This is a big bubble and it left behind no infrastructure.’ It left one very, very important piece of infrastructure: Everybody has a wallet now.”
The NFT can also be used in person. Shopify tried out the product with Doodles, a popular NFT project, at this year’s South by Southwest. Doodles NFT holders could buy exclusive merchandise or access a Doodles experience at the show. At the NFT.NYC conference this week, NFT project Cool Cats is using Shopify to offer access to special products for token holders.
One other use of NFTs is collaborations between brands, especially between Web3 and non-Web3 companies, Danco said. Superplastic, a toy company, partnered with Bored Ape Yacht Club to create toys for ape holders. Gucci also recently collaborated with Superplastic.
Danco sees this as akin to an old, famous band and a new, popular band playing a show together and sharing fans. NFTs enable that kind of experience, he argues. ”The funny thing is, it’s very hard to authentically do these kinds of exclusive collabs online where people invite each other in. But what people are seeing as token gating is actually just perfect for this.”
He believes companies will move beyond simply using an NFT to buy a product, but that is the easiest way for companies to get started. Danco also sees app developers that build on Shopify adding many more uses for NFTs. “I have an inside view of what some of these app developers are doing in the pipeline, and it’s gonna be nuts,” he said.

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Tomio Geron ( @tomiogeron) is a San Francisco-based reporter covering fintech. He was previously a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal, covering venture capital and startups. Before that, he worked as a staff writer at Forbes, covering social media and venture capital, and also edited the Midas List of top tech investors. He has also worked at newspapers covering crime, courts, health and other topics. He can be reached at tgeron@protocol.com or tgeron@protonmail.com.
Sealed offers homeowners the chance to save money and help protect the planet.
Sealed is convincing homeowners to look at their HVAC systems and insulation in order to save energy and money.
Lisa Martine Jenkins is a senior reporter at Protocol covering climate. Lisa previously wrote for Morning Consult, Chemical Watch and the Associated Press. Lisa is currently based in Brooklyn, and is originally from the Bay Area. Find her on Twitter ( @l_m_j_) or reach out via email (ljenkins@protocol.com).
Shiny silver panels hug the walls of Andy Frank’s attic; they vaguely remind me of a child’s robot Halloween costume. A sticky-looking foam lines both the gaps in the attic’s floorboards and the roof, plugging up holes where squirrels could have once taken shelter.
The space is positively sweat-inducing, even for the mere minute I have my head poking above the trapdoor.
I duck my head out and let the door close, so that I’m fully back on the second floor of the Connecticut home. The sweaty June feeling evaporates instantly on the pleasant — even cool! — landing. Frank assures me this was not always the case: Hot summers and cold winters used to be a fact of life in certain rooms, even with his HVAC system running at maximum power. This is his home post-Sealed.
Frank is the president and co-founder of the home decarbonization company, which he launched in 2012 alongside CEO and co-founder Lauren Salz. While Sealed is a decade old, it has found its footing in recent years. The pandemic, in particular, gave rise to a set of circumstances that Sealed was inadvertently positioned to address. As Salz put it, the pandemic “just brought forward the future in a lot of different ways.”

When it comes to home electrification, that future can’t come soon enough. Residential energy use accounts for roughly 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. There are about 80 million owner-occupied homes in the U.S., most of which have not been weatherized. That means they leak heat in the winter and cold air in the summer. Stopping this waste at the source has the potential to be a huge opportunity for decarbonization and making people’s lives more comfortable. It’s also daunting; no two homes are alike, creating a near-infinite suite of solutions.
Spray foam lines the home’s joists in Andy Frank’s basement.Photo: Lisa Martine Jenkins/Protocol
But Sealed is doing the improbable: convincing homeowners to take a long, hard look at their oft-ignored HVAC systems and insulation in order to save both energy and money.
The company’s central premise is that it will cut a home’s energy bill through a combination of installing insulation, a heat pump and other upgrades like air sealing (the sticky-looking foam in Frank’s attic, for example) and LED bulbs. If those upgrades fail to save energy, Sealed will eat the cost of retrofits. Assuming they do, the price of the upgrades are amortized over time, a setup that Sealed customer Michael Latchmansingh said is “fantastic.”
After purchasing his Eastchester, New York, home in 2019, Latchmansingh and his family endured a chilly winter that made it clear his upstairs rooms weren’t sufficiently insulated. At the recommendation of his dad, he reached out to Sealed about an upgrade.
The Sealed process, crucially, starts with an analysis of a home’s energy use, both current and future. It combines information like a home’s age, location, layout and energy usage history with data from third-party sources like Zillow and Google Maps to present its customers with personalized proposals on how to save energy.

These first steps are all done remotely; then, the company partners with local installers that have been vetted and trained in energy efficiency to come do the physical work. Sealed currently operates in the Northeast, which is an ideal location for its services given the warm-to-hot summers and cold winters. But it has expanded to Chicago — another place with extreme seasons — thanks to a recent $29.5 million funding round.
“We need to make sure that the installation happens in a quality way, because the truth of the matter is, in most cases, the quality of the installation actually matters more than the equipment itself,” said Frank, noting that the market for home efficiency-specific contractors is growing from a relatively small base.
Some customers (like Latchmansingh) elect to upgrade just their insulation or invest in air sealing, whereas others elect to go whole-hog and overhaul everything. Frank’s first home, purchased in 2020’s pandemic rush, serves as a laboratory of sorts for the Sealed process.
There are marks where the boiler once stood in the basement, next to the new heat pump hot water heater. Photo: Lisa Martine Jenkins/Protocol
For Frank, the upgrades couldn’t come soon enough. After a winter in which he and his wife went to sleep wrapped in sweaters and avoided their primary bathroom — it sits over a drafty garage, which made it tundra-like — Frank installed eight heat pumps across his home’s three levels. One of these heat pumps whispers contentedly behind his desk, right above a framed vintage heat pump advertisement. (Yes, he really likes heat pumps that much.)
The house is now reliably comfortable in the sticky New England summer. (How it handles the winter remains to be seen, since the upgrades are fairly recent.) Signs of the old HVAC system can be found throughout the home: There are marks where the boiler once stood in the basement and on certain walls where ducts have been removed. The mammoth air conditioner that once cooled Frank’s house now sits in the garage, waiting to be carted away. The kitchen still has a gas range for cooking, though an induction stove is on the way, meaning Frank will be able to cap his gas main in short order.

It’s homes like Frank’s that form a major part of the electrification challenge: older, with heating systems that rely on fossil fuels. Most homeowners don’t think about their HVAC systems until they need to be replaced, which happens roughly once a decade. It’s a timeline that is slower than addressing climate change demands, said Panama Bartholomy, executive director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition.
“Existing buildings are the real challenge” when it comes to moving away from the use of methane gas in the home, Bartholomy said. While there has been a surge of cities banning gas hookups, those bans have only focused on new buildings.
“We need to be putting in place structures in order to be able to really get contractors and building owners to start making these transitions,” Bartholomy added.
Even if more legislation that favors electrified appliances over gas ones and promotes weatherization is a ways off, the fact that companies like Sealed are finding success is a sign of at least some progress. Heat pumps in particular have proven to be a sleeper hit, with sales hitting an all-time high in the last two years, per the Building Decarbonization Coalition’s manufacturing members, Bartholomy said.
This is a trend that both Bartholomy and Salz attribute to the pandemic. As people spend most of their time in their homes, investing in comfort has become a priority. That means not just a more nappable couch, but also heating, cooling and general home efficiency. Interest has also coincided with rising concerns about how piping methane gas into homes can worsen indoor air quality and also be a public safety concern, given the risk of explosions.
The vintage ad that Frank has hanging in his office.Image: GE
“The only way to really drive mass adoption of these types of technologies is … a really strong customer value proposition that isn’t about either saving money or saving the planet,” Salz said, because regardless of the potential benefits, “it’s still a home renovation.”

For Latchmansingh, it’s one he would go through again. The first installation of insulation took a few days (though the contractors did have to pause for a day when the heat in the attic at the height of summer became unbearable) and generally speaking was “as easy as could be.”
Latchmansingh said he would return to Sealed when the time comes to replace his HVAC system. In retrospect, he wishes he had done so last summer, before the war in Ukraine sent gas prices through the roof. And in the meantime, he is spreading the Sealed gospel to friends and family who might qualify.
That “seeing is believing” evangelism and education are core parts of Sealed’s vision. The team is putting new emphasis on teaching customers about the merits of decarbonization and the technologies available to do so. The good news, Frank said, is that heat pumps can address many issues people have with their home, from comfort to sustainability to health. The bad? The majority of people don’t know they exist. But happy customers and more outreach could flip that script.
“Most of the people we encounter in the market don’t know a lot about heat pumps, but it’s better than it was a couple of years ago,” Frank said. “It’s really a matter of first educating them … and then making it easy and affordable for them to be able to install those technologies.”
Lisa Martine Jenkins is a senior reporter at Protocol covering climate. Lisa previously wrote for Morning Consult, Chemical Watch and the Associated Press. Lisa is currently based in Brooklyn, and is originally from the Bay Area. Find her on Twitter ( @l_m_j_) or reach out via email (ljenkins@protocol.com).
Nathan Coutinho leads Logitech’s global conferencing business strategy and analyst relations. A Swiss company focused on innovation and quality, Logitech designs products and experiences that have an everyday place in people’s lives.Coutinho leads strategy and execution of Logitech’s video conferencing solutions, from personal solutions to highly-scalable conference rooms.Coutinho has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry with various roles in executive leadership, consulting, engineering, marketing and technical sales.
Now that most organizations are returning to the office, there are varying extremes – some leaders demand that employees return to the office, with some employees revolting and some rejoicing to be together again. On the other hand, some companies have closed physical offices and made remote work permanent; creating a sigh of relief for some employees and creating frustration for others.
Most of us are somewhere in between, trying our best to take a measured approach at building the right hybrid strategy tailored to company culture. Some seemingly have begun to crack the code, while the majority are grappling with the when, how, why, and who of this new hybrid work reality.
Hybrid work success looks different depending on who you ask. Your company is made up of a cast of players, each with a role critical to a competitive and thriving business, and with an eye on their North Star: employee happiness. How do you appease all those stakeholders so we can all just move on and do our jobs without getting bogged down with the mechanics of it all?

IT: The technology behind hybrid success
Let’s first consider IT, which is the team most bogged down in the mechanics of it all. Heroically having kept workforces running with ad hoc setups during the pandemic, this team is now focused on standardizing technology for the varied mix of remote and in-office employees.
However, employee expectations are completely different than they were pre-pandemic. Technology that was once a nice-to-have is now table stakes not only in conference rooms, but for any space — whether that’s a private office, hot desk, or remote desk.
As a result the IT team is now thinking holistically about how to outfit their hybrid workforces so that each employee has equal access to the highest-quality hardware, software, and solutions. The setups also have to play well in an ecosystem where employees routinely toggle between Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and a number of other web-based platforms for video meetings.
Facilities: Configuring “anywhere” spaces
Since the pandemic, facilities teams have redesigned, closed, shrunk, expanded, rebuilt, moved, and retrofitted offices to accommodate the dynamics of an evolving workforce. Whether they’re creating hot desks, huddle rooms, or traditional conference rooms, this team has the difficult task of space-planning for employees who may or may not even come into the physical office on any given day.
Rightsizing, where each meeting space is outfitted for a specific purpose, is top of mind for facilities pros. Reconfiguring rooms to support new hybrid work schedules enables personalization and a safe return to the office. Understanding how employees will use spaces as they come back, and enabling them to easily find and use these spaces will be critical for success.

Human Resources: It’s all about the employee experience
Keeping the Great Resignation at bay is just the start for this team. HR professionals are trying to build and retain a healthy, productive workforce, in all its facets and complications.
Having distributed locations, while sometimes seen as a tremendous benefit, can also bring drawbacks from the lack of face-to-face communication, onboarding, and mentoring. HR leaders are also keenly aware of the lack of equitable experiences some remote employees face when meeting with in-office colleagues.

While some of the HR team’s concerns about employee experiences can be solved with technology (like using easy, intuitive tech to connect teams), the HR team’s challenges stretch into areas that are hard to measure. Cultivating creativity and building unified cultures within hybrid work are massive undertakings with no one-size-fits-all solution.

Finance team: Investment decisions
Finance teams are looking at the not-so-insignificant impact of hybrid work costs. One of the challenges is hybrid work’s coordination problem, as highlighted by Microsoft in its 2022 Work Trends Index Report. Because most organizations have yet to take a data-driven approach to hybrid work, they are continuing to incur the cost of maintaining their campuses while also shelling out work-from-home stipends to a growing virtual workplace.
Thinking smart about hybrid
Our focus at Logitech is helping the industry solve many of these problems.
Making hybrid work successful for everyone requires much more than AI-based innovations. We’ve built solutions that help make the virtual meeting experience more equitable for all, provide analytics and insights into meeting room usage, while bringing simplicity with one touch.
But that’s just the beginning. Listening to all stakeholders — and seeing their challenges through the lens of their role — is the smartest possible start to make this hybrid work actually work. And we’re on it.
Learn more about how Logitech Video Collaboration is making hybrid work for global brands.
Nathan Coutinho leads Logitech’s global conferencing business strategy and analyst relations. A Swiss company focused on innovation and quality, Logitech designs products and experiences that have an everyday place in people’s lives.Coutinho leads strategy and execution of Logitech’s video conferencing solutions, from personal solutions to highly-scalable conference rooms.Coutinho has more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry with various roles in executive leadership, consulting, engineering, marketing and technical sales.
HR experts said companies need to be proactive about protections for contraception, privacy and LGBTQ+ rights.
Experts say tech leaders need to start thinking about future Supreme Court rulings.
Lizzy Lawrence ( @LizzyLaw_) is a reporter at Protocol, covering tools and productivity in the workplace. She’s a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied sociology and international studies. She served as editor in chief of The Michigan Daily, her school’s independent newspaper. She’s based in D.C., and can be reached at llawrence@protocol.com.
Sarah (Sarahroach_) writes for Source Code at Protocol. She’s a recent graduate of The George Washington University, where she studied journalism and criminal justice. She served for two years as editor-in-chief of GW’s independent newspaper, The GW Hatchet. Sarah is based in New York, and can be reached at sroach@protocol.com
Tech companies are still trying to prepare for a post-Roe world. But it might already be time to think about what the Supreme Court is planning next.
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade Friday, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion that the court should also reconsider rulings protecting contraception and same-sex relationships, citing Griswold, Lawrence and Obergefell. If those decisions were ever overruled, it would have massive implications for everyone, but especially for employees living in states where same-sex marriage is at risk of becoming illegal without a federal shield.
Dozens of tech companies have announced policies to protect workers seeking abortions over the past month, and many of the logistics of those plans are unclear or still being decided. But given that the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion might be followed by more rulings down the line, HR experts said companies need to be proactive about protections for contraception, privacy and LGBTQ+ rights.

“Anybody who’s thinking about what’s going on in this country generally has to think about this,” said Janet Stovall, global head of DEI at the NeuroLeadership Institute.
When the decision to overturn the Supreme Court ruling on abortion was first leaked last month, some companies responded immediately with benefits. Others stood on the sidelines.
Companies including Bumble, Microsoft and Tesla announced almost immediately that they would cover abortion-related travel costs, while others said they’d offer relocation assistance for those living in states where abortion is heavily restricted (dozens of tech companies are based in states where abortion could become illegal or restricted). Some tech leaders were more quiet at the time of the leaked ruling. Meta, for example, told workers not to discuss abortion on its internal messaging platform. PlayStation told workers to “respect differences of opinion.”
Now that the ruling is official, companies are much more outspoken. Meta and Apple joined the chorus of tech companies publicly announcing their abortion-related travel coverage, although the exact steps companies are taking to implement the policy without exposing employee data aren’t entirely clear. “We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved,” a Meta spokesperson told Protocol. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
When it comes to future rulings, though, companies are once again choosing silence for now. Protocol asked 22 companies providing abortion-related travel coverage if they are preparing for a world in which same-sex marriage and same-sex relationships are not federally protected, given Thomas’ opinion. The companies that responded — including Indeed, Meta, Yelp, Match Group, Citigroup, DoorDash and Microsoft — reiterated their abortion coverage plans but did not say whether they are preparing for future Supreme Court rulings. DoorDash said it couldn’t speculate on future court decisions.
Yuvay Ferguson, a marketing professor at Howard University, said now is the time for companies to expand their actions beyond covering abortion-related travel. Ferguson said Justice Thomas’ opinion should serve as an alarm for everyone to act, including tech companies.
“Companies need to make sure they have a stance of supporting reproductive rights, not necessarily singularly focusing on abortion,” Ferguson said.

Contraception falls under that umbrella, but rights to same-sex relationships and marriage may come under fire as well. Tech companies will feel more pressure to go beyond rainbow-colored websites and declarations and stand up for LGBTQ+ folks internally and externally. Staying silent on bills like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law may no longer fly.
“How are you supporting people internally who don’t have the same resources as the people at the top, writing these PR statements?” said Madison Butler, chief people officer at cannabis company Grav. “It all comes down to inward accountability.”
Stovall said companies should first take care of people internally and be sure to communicate the gravity of the situation. Next, look at the legal landscape and figure out the actions you could even take against a harmful law. Lastly, carefully consider if you want to take a stand on the issue externally because if you do, you have to follow through. You don’t want to be perceived as picking and choosing certain issues, Stovall said.
“Is what you’re saying deliberate?” Stovall said. “Is it educated, is it purposeful, is it tailored to who you are and is it habitual? You need to be sure that it’s something that you’re gonna support going forward.”
Butler said the first and most important action is to have honest conversations with your marginalized employees. In other words, the employees whose rights would be most impacted by the reversal of these rulings. What do they need in order to feel supported? Maybe it’s an immediate need, like relocation. Maybe they want more concrete anti-discrimination policies or active advocation against harmful legislation. Butler emphasized that this messaging should come from the top, not just from employee activists or ERGs.
“All of these conversations should live in the C-suite,” Butler said. “We should absolutely be expecting this work and emotional labor from the people who are taking home millions every year.”
Salaried tech workers are not the people who will struggle most to get an abortion or contraception. Ferguson said she hopes tech companies, with all their power and money, don’t forget about the hourly workers who are most harmed by the rollback of rights. Tech leaders may start to think about preemptively advocating against these decisions, or their role in protecting user data from being weaponized. Stovall said companies should think about their locations in states that especially limit rights. “How do we have equity when we operate in inequitable spaces?” she said.

In the immediate wake of the Roe reversal, and in potential future decisions to come, Butler recommended giving employees space to feel a complex bundle of emotions.
“This is not just some brushstroke news article,” Butler said. “It’s not an op-ed. This is people’s lives.”
Lizzy Lawrence ( @LizzyLaw_) is a reporter at Protocol, covering tools and productivity in the workplace. She’s a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied sociology and international studies. She served as editor in chief of The Michigan Daily, her school’s independent newspaper. She’s based in D.C., and can be reached at llawrence@protocol.com.
From employee support to privacy concerns, tech companies play a critical role in what’s to come for abortion access in the U.S.
States banning abortion means that tech will play a critical role in what’s to come for abortion access in the U.S.
Alex Eichenstein (@alexeichenstein) is Protocol’s social media editor. Previously, she managed social media and audience engagement efforts at the Center for Public Integrity. She earned an B.A. in English, women and gender studies and political science from the University of Delaware. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Nat Rubio-Licht is a Los Angeles-based news writer at Protocol. They graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in newspaper and online journalism in May 2020. Prior to joining the team, they worked at the Los Angeles Business Journal as a technology and aerospace reporter.
The end of Roe v. Wade has sent the world of tech scrambling. Many companies are now trying to quickly figure out how to protect workers in states where abortion will be banned, while also facing potential privacy and legal ramifications.

Here’s a look at tech companies’ roles and responses to the ruling. We will update this page as news and events change.
Alex Eichenstein (@alexeichenstein) is Protocol’s social media editor. Previously, she managed social media and audience engagement efforts at the Center for Public Integrity. She earned an B.A. in English, women and gender studies and political science from the University of Delaware. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Apple’s “buy now, pay later” product has a distinctly different distribution strategy that means it doesn’t directly threaten Affirm, Klarna and Afterpay.
Apple Pay Later emerges as a distinctly different product than what Klarna and Affirm offer.
Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.
Apple’s entry into the “buy now, pay later” market was one of its worst-kept secrets: Analysts had been predicting the company’s rollout of a pay-later service as early as 2020. The most common read on the move was predictable: Apple was here to smash the competition. The company has a track record of jumping into new sectors late and still managing to come out on top — the iPod came out when there were tons of MP3 players on the market.
But some analysts have a starkly different view. When you look at it under the hood, Apple Pay Later emerges as a distinctly different product than what Klarna and Affirm offer, they say — and one that isn’t much of a market predator.
“This is an opportunity to greatly expand ‘buy now, pay later’ services to people who haven’t used them in the past,” said Ian Rasmussen, who co-leads the North American asset-backed securities ratings group at Fitch Ratings.

That’s for two main reasons. For one, Apple is marketing its pay-later offering to customers in an entirely different place than competitors. Second, the customers Apple is targeting have habits that differ markedly from traditional “buy now, pay later” users.
The most popular pay-later providers have a straightforward primary marketing strategy: partner with retailers that typically feature their logos at checkout, prompting customers to pay over time. Many of these partnerships are exclusive, allowing a company like Klarna, for example, to be the only pay-later provider for customers checking out at Macy’s. The tight integration is meant to boost conversions. Reducing or eliminating “friction” is a “huge factor” in helping sign customers up, said Harry Kohl, a director at Fitch Ratings.
The pay-later companies are trying to extend their reach through financial super apps, which allow customers to apply for payment plans even when there’s not a deal in place with a retailer, though that takes more steps than pressing a button at checkout. Other tools are the virtual and physical cards that allow customers to pay online or in-store, like Affirm’s Debit+ card or the Klarna Card.
Apple Pay Later lives in Apple’s digital wallet, an iPhone feature the company has been trying to build up. Users will be prompted to check out using Apple Pay Later any time they use Apple Pay, or can configure loans directly in the wallet. Customers who do will be able to complete the payment across four charges, spread out over six weeks. The wallet will also show users their Apple Pay Later plans and the payments due over the next 30 days, Apple said.
Confusingly, Apple Pay Later is almost completely separate from Apple’s other venture into consumer credit, the Apple Card. (Apple Card has its own pay-over-time feature, but only for Apple products.) Customers must link payments to a debit card, not a credit card like the Apple Card.
Apple’s advantage is the wide reach of iPhones among consumers and Apple Pay among merchants — particularly at retail, where the pay-later companies are trying to use cards to boost usage.

“It’s a different mindset,” said Patrick DellaValle, director in the financial services practice at Guidehouse. Apple doesn’t need to compete with other pay-later companies for exclusive contracts with retailers, he said, and can focus on continuing to monetize loyal Apple consumers. “They could miss out [on some customers], but it could also be an intentional strategy if you’re going to focus on those customers that will pay upfront with Apple Pay,” he said.
Those existing Apple customers differ from the kind of customer “buy now, pay later” companies have talked about serving: typically a younger person, turned off by credit cards. Third-party surveys consistently show that Apple customers have higher incomes and spend more than Android users.
About three-quarters of pay-later users in the U.S. are Gen Z or millennials, according to a report from eMarketer. Adults who make between $50,000 and $100,000 are most likely to use “buy now, pay later.” Research from The Ascent also shows that 45% of those customers are using “buy now, pay later” to afford something that didn’t already fit into their budgets.
That all points to Apple not making Apple Pay Later to woo existing “buy now, pay later” customers away from the services they use. Instead, it appears the company made a product for the people who love Apple, aimed at persuading them to make more use of the Wallet app and Apple Pay.
Mike Taiano, a senior director at Fitch’s North American Banks Group, sees it simply. “This is another tentacle for them to get into customers’ everyday life,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily assume that they automatically go to the top of the leaderboard.”
Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.
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