Getting consumers to spend money on shiny high-end gadets and stylish Mac’s has been one of Apple’s (NASDAQ:APPL) greatest talents over the last decade. Now, Business Insider reports, the company is making it even easier for customers to buy its products with an app that enables Apple account holders to purchase small items — chargers, protective iPhone and iPad cases, headphones, etc. — without having to bother salespeople at Apple Stores.

The new app, available for iPhone 4 and 4S models only, according to Business Insider, allows customers to scan product barcodes with their phone cameras. Once the barcode has been properly scanned, they can simply tap “buy” on their phones and the item is paid for through their Apple account — just like purchasing an app in the App Store or a song on iTunes.

To make it work, there are some preliminary steps. The Apple Store app, featuring the EasyPay option, has to be downloaded and installed on the iPhone. When in a physical Apple Store, the iPhone has to be connected to the store’s Wi-Fi network. Once this is done, however, the spending can commence. The app immediately emails a receipt to your email account, which may come in handy if an Apple employee inquires why you’re leaving the store with an unbagged item in hand.

On his blog at CIO, James Martin recounts taking the EasyPay app for a spin at a nearby Apple Store and found that the app worked as promised — but only for small items. A salesperson at the store told Martin that larger products, like Macs, iPads, iPhones and MacBooks, were kept in secure storage outside the sales area, so the EasyPay app couldn’t be used to pay for them. Only off-the-shelf items are purchasable via the app. For now, at least.

The EasyPay feature represents a very Apple-specific means to accelerate smartphone-based electronic payments, but it points to a future in which smartphones will become payment vehicles in addition to their already numerous other functions. Apple rival Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) has invested heavily in its Near Field Communications (NFC) based Wallet, though a series of recent defections may have left Wallet in disarray.

Security concerns linger, of course, and agreement on technology standards has been slow in coming, at least in the U.S. According to CIO, Japanese smartphone users can already pay for items through a NFC-based service called FeliCa.