With a host of new mobile payments apps now being tested or launched, it seems the mobile payments industry is really starting to gain traction in the US.
With food and beverage giants McDonalds, Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, Tim Hortons, Taco Bell and Wendy’s now offering (or testing) their own mobile payments app, it’s no wonder ABI Research predicts the global mobile payment industry will reach US$191 billion (A$202 billion) annually by 2017.
So, who is offering what?
McDonalds
Maccas in the States is quietly testing an order-ahead and mobile payment app in 22 of its Georgia restaurants. The app, called ‘McD Ordering’, allows users to order ahead and then pick up their meal without having to wait in line.
How exactly does it work? The user downloads the app and links it to their credit or debit card. When the user is ready to make an order, he opens the app, inputs what he wants and then makes his way to the restaurant.
At the restaurant, the user scans a QR code in-store, or outside at the ‘curbside’ check-in. This sends the order to the restaurant’s system, and takes the payment from the user’s nominated credit or debit card.
The user’s phone displays their customer number, and when the order is ready, their customer number will be called out to collect in-store, or walked out to the user’s car if they checked in curbside.
Considering the nature of ‘fast food’, one would have to wonder whether this app is really worthwhile. After all, the order only starts being prepared when you arrive at the restaurant – and would take the same amount of time to prepare as if you were to order in the usual manner.
McDonalds’ response: “You don’t have to wait in line.”
Chick-Fil-A
US-based chicken fast food chain Chick-Fil-A is also testing a mobile payment app, although this chain set its trial in 20 restaurants in North Carolina. Similar to the McDonalds app, the Chick-Fil-A app is linked to a credit or debit card and allows users to pay for their order via a QR code POS.
Tim Hortons
With outlets across Canada and the US, Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons followed in the footsteps of super-successful Starbucks, by launching its own mobile payments app last month.
To use the TimmyMe app, users have to download it and then connect it to their Tim Card. When making an order in-store, the POS scans their QR code and the payment is deducted from their Tim Card.
If the user happens to have a Windows phone, they can use voice recognition on their app to pay. Simply saying, “TimmyMe Pay” will launch the app, allowing the user access the correct screen faster.
Starbucks
While other companies are only now launching their own mobile payments offerings, Starbucks got on the bandwagon years ago. But Starbucks didn’t just get on the bandwagon, it owned the bandwagon.
The Starbucks mobile payments app is now so successful, it accounts for 14% of the chain’s US in-store payments, with more than 4 million mobile payments taken each week.
How did Starbucks manage this? For one thing, they got in early and assessed their customer base correctly. They provided a mobile payments system that integrated with their current payment system and didn’t require new hardware – for the customer or the company.
Unlike other many mobile payments apps, with the Starbucks app, the user’s phone creates the QR code, which is then scanned by the POS – not the other way round, where the user scan’s the restaurant’s QR code.
Starbucks also incorporates its incredibly successful loyalty program into its mobile payments app, allowing users to earn and redeem rewards points on their phone (unlike other coffee companies who utilise losable paper coffee cards).
Housetab
Some apps are taking the payment process one step further, combining mobile payments with social networking. Housetab is one such app.
Currently based in New York only, Housetab allows users to ‘check in’ when they visit a participating restaurant or bar, pay their tab, meet up and communicate with friends, and send ‘Goodies’ such as drinks and food to their contacts.
Andrew Tauber, CEO of Housetab, said, “There are a couple of things out there that are on the mobile payment side in New York, but there is very little traction… because there is no real true engagement other than speeding up the exit process for a consumer.
“That’s great, but if you wrap around the whole platform a social community and a social network, we think it will be the driver to getting engagement in mobile payments and in the application itself. That will be the hook in getting people involved.
“So far, the feedback has been great, users really like it. It is taking the social network that has been so far associated to the digital and virtual world and bringing it back into the physical world so it is a social network but you can actually really meet up with people and send them Goodies – there is a tangible meaning here.”
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