Samsung is considering adding contactless payments to its new
And it's not the only company taking a fresh look at wearable payments. The payments fintech Curve (not to be confused with
Part of the broader
"We haven't seen wearables as a big user recently," said James Wester, director of cryptocurrency and co-head of payments for Javelin Strategy & Research. "That is likely because the initial push with rings, watches, and other wearables was a little ahead of their time."
When these wearable options were initially introduced, contactless-enabled point-of-sale terminals were still not widespread, and consumers were not as familiar with the tap-to-pay process, according to Wester. "The devices were also introduced as consumers were learning the EMV insert vs. swipe at the POS."
A ring to it
Samsung, which did not provide comment for this article, is initially positioning the new Galaxy Ring as a health monitor with payments support coming later. Adding payments would bring the Samsung Pay wallet to the wearable, similar to Apple Watch, which pairs health information with payments and other functions.
Apple did not return a request for comment on Apple Watch's payments volume by deadline. But Apple Pay in all form factors makes up only about 3% of in-store transactions in the U.S., according to research from
The challenge in gaining more adoption isn't the reliability of the technology, but changing consumers' habits at scale, according to Shachar Bialick, CEO and founder of payments fintech and wearables evangelist Curve.
Card issuers are reluctant to integrate payments with a device, such as a ring or watch, that does not have a large audience or is not typically used to pay for things, Bialick said. As a result, "wearable payments stagnated," he said.
Curve's core business is enabling consumers to store several card accounts on a single card as a way for consumers to manage budgets and credit-card balances. Curve's products include a "
The payment fintech partnered last year with IoT firm Digiseq to link Curve's "all-in-one" model to wearable devices to make payments. Consumers can provision their Curve payment account onto the wearable device by using their Android or iOS smartphone.
"We don't require an integration with each issuer," Bialick said. "When you pay with a wearable, you are paying with the Curve card 'behind the wearable.'"
Bialick said its wearable technology could work with Samsung's ring. Curve just launched a campaign to boost awareness of its wearable strategy, and a new online portal designed to expedite connections between consumers and wearable devices. By using the main centralized Curve card as the payment method for the wearable, Curve hopes to address the scale issue that Bialick addressed.
Curve's early clients for wearable payments include Twinn, Swatch, Tap2Pay and Tapster.
A fashionable future
Opportunities for consumers, merchants and banks to adopt wearable payments are increasing. The global market for wearable electronics was about $32 billion in 2022, according to research from
The number of payments made by Internet-of-Things devices — which includes wearables and other web-connected devices that aren't computers or phones — reached 10.5 billion in 2023 and is expanding on pace to reach 62.7 billion in 2028, according to
A quarter of Gen Z and millennials use wearable devices, and a sizable portion plan to acquire such a device in the near future, according to research from
"Wearables uptake relies on the adoption of contactless payments, which itself relies on the underlying infrastructure. So while contactless payments have been in the market for many years, it's only the last few years that we're seeing traction there," said Gareth Lodge, a senior payments analyst at Celent.
There are also challenges regarding how wearable technology should be used to make purchases, or if it's an improvement over more common choices. "What are the use cases where a wearable is better than … fill in the blank?" Lodge said.
There are several examples where wearables could be useful, according to Lodge. "For example, daily commutes, where you tap in and out of the station," he said. "Or a grab and go at a coffee shop."
Now that most cards have been issued with contactless capabilities, and contactless-accepting POS terminals are more widespread due to mobile payments, reintroducing wearables as a form factor makes much more sense, Wester said. "It will be interesting to see if wearables become a commonly distributed form factor for major issuers, or if they remain a product from smaller issuers or companies like Curve trying to offer something innovative for niche payment use cases."
