Franchising News
Major Franchise Restaurants Announce Move To Adopt Apple Pay
Written by Tim Morral
Published: 9/26/2014
National franchise brands including Panera, Starbucks and McDonald's plan to accept Apple Pay in their restaurants in October.
Restaurant franchises will be some of the first to accept Apple Pay when it launches in October, reported Nation's Restaurant News. Restaurants including Panera Bread, Starbucks, Subway, McDonald's and other chains will begin rolling out Apple Pay technology in October.
Apple's new mobile payment capabilities are touted as a convenient and secure payment method for consumers. The company worked closely with McDonald's and Subway to create its payment platform and ensure it is tailored to merchants and customers.
Panera and McDonald's both released statements regarding the announcement. According to Blaine Hurst, Panera's chief technology and transformation officer, accepting Apple Pay is "a natural extension of Panera 2.0, which brings together digital ordering, multiple payment options and improved operational processes to deliver an enhanced guest experience."
For other small business franchise owners that are thinking about implementing technology to accept Apple Pay, it could be a smart move. Each franchise owner will need to assess their unique businesses and customer base, but considering Apple sold a record 10 million iPhone 6 devices during its first weekend of sales, many customers will likely be using Apple Pay come October.
Apple Pay offers several advantages, including increased security and privacy for in-store payments as a result of near field communication (NFC) technology. Identities are verified at the point of purchase using a sensor, and each transaction receives a unique security code.
Merchants will need to adopt EMV-compatible payment platforms by October 2015 to comply with bank card provider guidelines or face increased liability for security breaches. Since merchants must implement EMV technology in the next year, it's worth finding an EMV platform that also accepts NFC payments.
Many EMV platforms are equipped to process NFC payments already, so it's a relatively low cost technology investment for most small business owners and will help franchises with reducing credit card chargebacks, among other benefits. Visa, for example is offering to waive the annual PCI-DSS audit if 75 percent of merchant's Visa transactions are processed through a dual contactless and contact EMV certified device, according to Chase Bank's website.
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