European alternative payment methods (APMs) have a long history of failed attempts to succeed at the physical point of sale (POS). In contrast, Apple Pay has achieved tremendous success. Apple’s tight control over the iPhone’s NFC chip has fueled iOS’s dominance in contactless payments (see Figure 1) while blocking APMs from delivering a comparable user experience (UX). A regulatory push by the EU has now forced Apple to open NFC access, giving European APMs a new opportunity to compete in-store.
However, NFC access alone is unlikely to guarantee success. Even if other wallets match Apple Pay’s UX, they still face major hurdles: achieving broad merchant acceptance and convincing users to switch their default mobile wallet. In this article, we review European APMs’ historical attempts to gain traction in-store and analyze early initiatives and adoption barriers they must overcome to succeed at the POS.
Many European APMs have been highly successful online, but their attempts to gain traction in physical stores have largely fallen short. As shown in Figure 2, most European APMs hold only negligible share at the POS.
Prior efforts using QR codes and BLE-based payment flows failed because of clunky user experiences and low customer uptake. For example, Vipps MobilePay reported in 2023 that just 2 out of 1,000 transactions (0.2%) occurred via its QR payment flow at the payment terminal—leading the company to discontinue the service 2.5 years after launch.
Apple’s mandated opening of the NFC chip could be an inflection point for APMs at the POS. As shown in Figure 3, Apple has unlocked core NFC features: third-party wallets can now be set as the default wallet on iOS devices and can access critical UX capabilities such as field detect (to prompt payment), “double click” (to confirm), and Face ID (to authenticate).
In our view, to succeed at the POS, an APM must overcome three major hurdles:
Launched in December 2024, Vipps MobilePay in Denmark and Norway became the first European digital APM to introduce a ‘tap-to-pay’ solution on iOS devices. We assess Vipps MobilePay’s proposition in the context of the adoption hurdles outlined below:
Example 2) BLIK, Poland
BLIK launched its NFC POS proposition for Android in the first half of 2022, and at iOS devices in 2025 after the unlocking of Apples NFC. BLIK’s NFC transactions have grown substantially faster than its legacy non-NFC POS solution, which relied on a six-digit passcode (roughly 95% growth vs. 40% from 2022–2024). BLIK NFC now represents an estimated 2–3% of total POS payment value in Poland. Figure 7 illustrates the product. We examine the adoption hurdles in context of BLIK NFC below:
Although Vipps MobilePay and BLIK are still early in their POS lifecycles, the takeaway is clear: technology and UX are necessary, but the real test is whether they can get consumers to use their wallet at the POS.
Apple’s opening of the iOS NFC chip is not yet the game-changer many expected. The real hurdle for European APMs is no longer technological—it’s scale and habit. Early movers like Vipps and BLIK are only beginning to test what it takes to shift consumer behavior, and others such as Klarna, Bizum and PayPal will soon add more data points. The story about APM’s inroads at POS in Europe is still being written, and the winners will be those that persuade Apple Pay users to switch and convert non-wallet users into active users of their wallet and achieve a broader merchant acceptance network.
Please do not hesitate to contact Anupam Majumdar at Anupam@FlagshipAP.com, or Elisabeth Magnor at Elisabeth@FlagshipAP.com with comments or questions.