By Chuck Martin
The advancement and adoption of mobile payments is picking up steam, at least at locations where millions of people eat.
In the latest in a string of quick service restaurant adoptions of some form of paying by phone, Wendy’s just rolled out mobile payments to all its locations in the U.S.
As in other cases, payments at Wendy’s come through its own mobile app.
And Wendy’s is hardly the only quick service restaurant offering mobile payment services, following Burger King’s recent announcement that its mobile app is now a virtual wallet, letting people pay for orders after they add funds to a virtual card.
The incentive for customers is to tap into associated coupons in the app.
And then there is Subway, which through its own app is offering mobile payments, offers and loyalty deals.
Through various and visible consumer promotions, these restaurants will be attempting to effect consumer expectations. They will be promoting easier and faster ordering and quicker checkout.
This reminds me of the Geico TV commercial where a pig on an airplane is challenged by a flight attendant to stop playing a silly word game. The pig then responds that he has just paid his bill and rattles through various other capabilities his Geico app provides.
Consumers will be seeing more such messaging that suggests a value proposition to them.
While the masses may not quickly migrate to ordering or paying by phone at these establishments, they will likely hear and learn about it.
The expectations of how consumers can use their phones for various aspects of ordering and purchasing is about to become highly visible.
And of those who do hear about it, the question is how many will actually do it.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk column. He is the author of “Mobile Influence,” “The Third Screen,” and “The Smartphone Handbook.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute. Chuck Martin is a frequent Mobile Keynote Speaker and Mobile Marketing Speaker internationally. He also addresses Social Media in Mobile.
