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Target will accept Google Pay and Samsung Pay soon

The huge United States retailer will also accept Samsung Pay and Apple Pay.
By
January 22, 2019

Enormous United States retailer Target announced today that it is rolling out support for contactless payments to all of its 1,800+ stores across the nation. That means you’ll soon be able to use payment apps like Google Pay and Samsung Pay at checkout. You’ll also be able to use Apple Pay and contactless chips embedded into various credit cards.

Target announced the news on its corporate blog. However, it did not give a specific timeline for the rollout.

In order for contactless payments to work, credit card terminals need to support the technology. It’s not clear from Target’s blog post if the current terminals throughout Target stores already support contactless payments — and Target simply didn’t “turn on” the feature — or if Target will need to upgrade its existing terminals before the feature is supported. The former situation will result in a much faster rollout than the latter, obviously.

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Target’s acceptance of contactless payments will be a huge boon to Google Pay, being as Target is the eighth-largest retailer in the country. Target’s acceptance will dramatically increase the number of physical shops at which Google Pay is accepted, which will help broaden user adoption of the app.

Target didn’t jump on the contactless payment trend when it began with the success of Apple Pay several years ago. Instead, the company pushed the use of its Target app which earns Target shoppers discounts and cash back. However, the app uses a scannable barcode for its payment system, not NFC. The company emphasizes in its blog post that the Target app will continue to be supported.

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