Slowly, but surely, Apple Pay is adding more supported merchants.
At Re/Code’s annual Code/Mobile conference on Thursday, Jennifer Bailey, the vice president of Apple Pay, announced the company’s mobile payment system on the iPhone and Apple Watch will roll out to select Starbucks stores as a pilot program by the end of the year. She also revealed KFC and Chili’s will support Apple Pay in 2016.
While the Apple Pay rollout at Starbucks this year will only be a test run, Bailey said the coffee company will expand the service to its 7,500 stores worldwide in 2016.
Bailey didn’t go into detail on whether or not customers would receive any loyalty rewards from making purchases with Apple Pay. She did, however, restate how iOS 9 incorporates loyalty program cards during the Apple Pay transaction process, hinting that Starbucks could incorporate the feature.
“We’re seeing a lot of support for quick-service restaurants with a need for fast payment,” Bailey told Re/Code.
Apple Pay launched in October 2014 with support at about 220,000 locations and has since expanded to around 700,000 merchants in the U.S.
Apple Pay isn’t the only mobile payment system in town. Google just launched its own mobile payment system called Android Pay and Samsung has its Samsung Pay.
Author: Raymond Wong
Source: Mashable