Apple Pay subscribers who move with you
The problem
Apple Pay is the stickiest token you own and you don’t own it
Apple Pay is often the highest-converting checkout option a subscription business has. It’s also the one most tied to the processor that accepted it. The device token Apple issues is processed through a specific gateway’s merchant credentials, and the resulting stored credential belongs to that processor.
So a merchant with 40% of subscribers on Apple Pay who loses or leaves their processor loses 40% of the base with no way to rebill them. Card subscribers can sometimes be migrated. Apple Pay subscribers, with most providers, cannot.
How PaymentKit handles it
Vault the credential, not the processor’s copy of it
Account updater and network token lifecycle apply the same way they do for cards, so expired or reissued cards behind an Apple Pay credential refresh without the customer re-adding anything.
- 01
Apple Pay on your PaymentKit checkout
Apple Pay is enabled on your PaymentKit checkout (hosted, embedded, or PaymentKit.js on your own domain).
- 02
Customer authorizes as normal
The customer authorizes with Face ID or Touch ID as normal.
- 03
Credential stored in our vault
PaymentKit receives the Apple Pay payment data and stores the resulting credential in our vault, independent of whichever processor runs the first charge.
- 04
Rebills route anywhere
Subsequent charges for that subscriber route through any processor in your route that accepts the credential. Change the route, change the processor, the subscriber doesn’t notice.
What’s required on your side
Setup
- An Apple Pay merchant ID, domain verification, and merchant identity certificate. PaymentKit walks you through it; Apple’s process takes about a day.
- At least one connected processor that supports Apple Pay.
- Checkout through PaymentKit, not through a processor’s own checkout. Apple Pay captured on Stripe Checkout stays with Stripe.
Availability
Apple decides who can offer it
Apple Pay is enabled by the acquirer and governed by Apple’s merchant terms. Some categories are excluded regardless of processor, including adult content. If you’re in a restricted category, we’ll tell you up front rather than set up a flow that gets pulled.
Who this is for
Merchants whose Apple Pay base needs to come along
Subscription businesses with meaningful Apple Pay share. Mobile-first products where Apple Pay is the primary checkout. Anyone who has already lost a processor once and found out what happened to their wallet subscribers. Merchants planning a processor change who want the Apple Pay base to come along.
Proof
Independent vaulting is how the brands in our own portfolio switch processors without a churn event.
- 20+subscription brands in our own portfolio on PaymentKit, several with Apple Pay as the largest checkout method.