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Fast-food restaurant chain Chick-fil-A Inc. has jumped into the mobile-payments frying pan with the debut Monday of a mobile payment and ordering app.
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A says the app, available for iOS and Android smart phones, can be used for mobile ordering at 130 Chick-fil-A restaurants in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Orlando, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Nationwide availability is expected by the end of 2016. The mobile-payment feature is available now at more than 1,850 locations nationally.
To make either a mobile payment or place a mobile order, a consumer must create an account, which is where she can select a favorite location and store a payment card number.
To place a mobile order, the consumer selects a store location and places items in the app’s shopping cart. The app also stores favorite orders.
From there, the consumer has two payment options. If she wants to pay prior to pick up, she enters her credit or debit card information in the app, which can save the information for future use.
Consumers also can store funds in their Chick-fil-A mobile accounts by using a credit or debit card to place money in the accounts. Chick-fil-A, which did not respond to Digital Transactions News inquiries, did not say if the app also works with Chick-fil-A gift cards as a funding mechanism.
Consumers also can use the app to pay in a restaurant after placing an order via the mobile app, which uses geo-location to determine the consumer’s location to help her find the nearest restaurants. To do this, upon payment the app generates a unique Quick Response code on the smart phone, which is then scanned by the restaurant’s point-of-sale system scanner when the consumer holds the phone up to it.
“Mobile ordering is all about giving customers the flexibility and choice to order what they want, when they want it, and how they want it,” Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A leader of digital-ordering strategy, says in a press release.
Chick-fil-A’s decision to use QR codes for mobile payments makes sense, suggests payments consultant Beth Robertson, with Robertson Payments Services LLC.
“Retailers like the QR solution as a quick and affordable entree into mobile that uses existing technology,” Robertson tells Digital Transactions News in an email. “These solutions offer a way to build loyalty and interest from the demographics most interested in mobile transacting while other more technologically complex solutions continue to be tested and rolled out. Most merchants do not intend the QR solutions to be long-term or to be adopted by other merchants; they are more a short-term play.”
