A study by Phoenix Marketing International found McDonald’s and Apple’s own stores have the highest foot traffic from US users of the payment service.

Over 40 per cent of Apple Pay credit card users interviewed by the research firm made at least one Apple Pay credit card transaction over the last five months in either store.

Other leading retailers include Macy’s (36 per cent) and Subway (32 per cent).

Apple’s own stores were also top of the list of retailers accepting at least one in-app Apple Pay credit card transaction (43 per cent), followed by Target (36 per cent) and Nike (29 per cent).

“The push toward enabling in-app mobile wallet transactions is critical to building volume in a nascent market where the number of acceptance locations is relatively small (but growing) and the incidence of reported friction at the point-of-sale is high,” said Greg Weed, Director of Card Research at Phoenix Marketing International.

“Regional differences are evident during this early stage – with only a handful of states accounting for half of all Apple Pay credit card transactions as reported by survey respondents.”

Phoenix runs an ongoing study tracking a number of Apple Pay users and their buying habits.

During the service’s first year (up to October 2015), the Phoenix survey recorded credit card transactions among 833 Apple Pay users.

Most (91 per cent) made an Apple Pay credit card transaction in a store while two-thirds (67 per cent) made an in-app transaction. Looking at total Apple Pay credit card transactions, 62 per cent were made in-store and 38 per cent were made in-app.