Apple Pay will be compatible with select Starbucks outlets by the end of 2015, and is expected to reach 7500 outlets by next year. The announcement was made by Vice President of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey on Thursday at Code Mobile Conference. She further added that KFC outlets along with Chili’s Grill & Bar will also start accepting Apple Pay by next year as well.
While even Starbucks said in a statement that it would be pilot testing Apple’s mobile payment service in some of its stores before finally roll out service next year.
“We have been accepting Apple Pay in the U.K. over the past few months, and it has been received well by customers,” said Starbucks.
Even Chili’s confirmed via an official statement that Apple Pay is the first mobile payment service the food chain has ever adopted.
Hence, this is a pretty good indication that mobile payment services are now being widely accepted. The Cupertino giant introduced the service back in 2014, which essentially allows users to pay by holding their iPhone or the Apple Watch near a credit card reader. The service is compatible to work with credit, debit, store and loyalty cards, details of which are stored in their Wallet app.
However since its debut, Apple Pay reportedly accounts for a mere one percent of all retail transactions in the US. Though despite this, Apple believes there’s been “a sea change in acceptance at the merchant level.” Implying that more and more businesses are now adopting this technology at various levels.
Even Google along with Samsung have also launched their own version of Apple Pay, called Android Pay and Samsung Pay respectively.
The search engine giant has already joined hands with American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa for its Android Pay. While the company says that Citi and Wells Fargo will also be available in next few days, and ‘Capitol One’ is also ‘coming soon.’ Notably, banks like USAA, US Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union along with many regional banks will support Android Pay. Google also says it’ll be busy working to add support across more banks to have full support.
