The FINANCIAL — Visa on August 31 announced it is enabling payments on the new Garmin vívoactive 3 smartwatch, allowing consumers with active lifestyles to pay with the flick of their wrist instead of stashing their cards or cash in their socks while exercising.
A recent review of consumers’ workout woes, the “Visa Sweaty Money Survey,” found that for those who do decide to bring forms of payments along with them on workouts, 57 percent admitted to placing it in an unconventional place, like a sock or even their undergarments.
“The idea of wearing your wallet on your wrist is not only desired by consumers, but with Visa and Garmin it will be both convenient and secure,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa. “Partners like Fit Pay, Inc. are helping us accelerate the growth of IoT by bringing payment-based features to market on devices like Garmin’s – with greater ease and speed-to-market.”
The Garmin vívoactive 3 is the first wearable from Garmin to feature Garmin Pay, an early NFC-based product to utilize the Visa Ready for Tokenization program, via TSP program partner Fit Pay, Inc. The Visa Ready for Tokenization program gives partners access to Visa’s broad network of tools and services – including the Visa Token Service – to speed up and simplify the process for embedding secure payments in connected or mobile devices, according to Visa.
“Garmin customers are dedicated to living an active lifestyle. The last thing they want to think about after participating in a marathon or working out is pulling out money from their sweaty workout gear to pay for a post-workout refreshment – or even worse, forgetting their money,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global sales. “Working with Visa through Fit Pay, Inc. has enabled us to provide a quick payment solution for our customers and now they can pay whenever, wherever.”
Fitness fans have unique pain points when it comes to meeting their commerce needs on-the-go. In the Visa Sweaty Money Survey released today, key results found:
60 percent of those surveyed would be interested in using a wearable device to pay for something during their workout.
49 percent of respondents have wanted to make a payment before or after working out, but couldn’t because they didn’t have a form of payment with them.
57 percent of respondents refrain from carrying any form of payment while exercising because they’re worried about losing it or have no place to put it.
