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Tech Support What small-business owners need to know about technology.

With the introduction of Apple Pay, many small-business owners are weighing whether they should take the necessary steps to accept the new form of payment.

So far, most of the merchants that have signed up to accept Apple Pay are large ones, like Macy’s, McDonald’s, Subway and Whole Foods. To use Apple Pay, businesses must have an N.F.C. reader, which is also called a contactless reader and refers to near field communications. Right now, less than 10 percent of American retailers do, according to Mark Hung, an analyst with Gartner, an information technology research firm.

For most small businesses, though, adopting Apple Pay should be pretty straightforward. There is no added fee from Apple on top of the credit card fees merchants already pay, but businesses will need to buy N.F.C. payment terminals. Donald Boeding, president of merchant services for Vantiv, a payment-processing firm in Cincinnati, said smaller businesses could buy the machines for $300 to $500.

Mr. Boeding recommended the VeriFone VX520, which Vantiv is selling for $250: “That model is rugged, has a powerful processor, great memory, and is an N.F.C. reader that is E.M.V.-compliant.” E.M.V. stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the companies that originally developed the technology. E.M.V. cards — also known as chip-and-pin cards and already prevalent in Europe — are becoming increasingly important for all businesses.

The United States is moving toward widespread E.M.V. adoption, in part because the cards are seen as far more secure than the magnetic-strip technology used by American credit cards. In fact, in October 2015 merchants will be faced with what is being called a “liability shift” — those still using magnetic-strip terminals will no longer be protected from credit card fraud.

“Card issuers in the U.S. have said in October they will shift the responsibility for fraud from the card companies to the merchants — if the merchants don’t take the E.M.V. cards,” Mr. Hung said. That means most businesses will have little choice but to get N.F.C. terminals. N.F.C. readers can accept both E.M.V.-standard credit cards and digital payments like Apple Pay.

Those who want to integrate Apple Pay into their existing system can simply replace the old swipe terminal with a new contactless one. “It’s like upgrading from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 6; you’re upgrading and getting many new things with that,” Mr. Boeding said.

Pete Donat, senior vice president of the payment-processing firm First Data, agreed that integration should not be complicated for most small businesses. “When businesses get larger and have more comprehensive solutions, then integration gets more complex,” he said. “For small business, their point-of-sale provider will help them.”

The majority of First Data’s merchant customers are small businesses, and Mr. Donat said the company is getting lots of calls from them about Apple Pay. “They fall into three buckets,” he said, “those who actively want to use it, those who are exploring it and those that want to wait and see.”

Bret Csencsitz, managing partner at Gotham Bar and Grill in New York City, which has more than $10 million in annual revenue, is in the wait-and-see bucket. He said customers at the restaurant can already pay with their phone, using MyCheck or PayPal’s mobile payment app, but fewer than 1 percent do. Gotham may implement Apple Pay, he said, but not right now. “No one is coming in asking for digital payment,” Mr. Csencsitz said. “People have to first upgrade their phones and then get used to the idea of paying with it.”

Other businesses, however, are not waiting for customers to ask. “I think within three weeks, we’ll have it,” said David Kalt, chief executive of Chicago Music Exchange, a music store that sells instruments and music equipment and has about $20 million in sales. Mr. Kalt wants to incorporate the new technology because he said it would allow customers to spend less time conducting transactions and more time with sales reps, learning about the store’s products.

The store processes about 250 invoices a day, and that’s a lot of people checking out, Mr. Kalt said, so he is doing his research: “We want to make sure we can offer a good, streamlined checkout experience.”

Apple Pay is also facing competition from the Merchant Customer Exchange, a consortium of major retailers that includes Walmart, Southwest Airlines, Target and smaller retailers nationwide. The consortium has introduced its own mobile wallet, CurrentC, a free app that can be used on old and new phones, iOS or Android. Unlike Apple Pay, CurrentC does not require business owners to add new hardware. It relies on QR codes — two dimensional bar codes — scanned in from a phone to process a payment. The app is in a private test now and is expected to expand through 2014 and roll out nationwide next year. Merchants that accept CurrentC must do so “exclusively,” according to a blog post the group published Wednesday, so they won’t also be to accept Apple Pay.