The fast food chain’s application will now allow users in three American markets to pay with smartphones.
Wendy’s has just announced that it is piloting a mobile payments program within three of its American markets, which will allow customers there to be able to pay for their purchases through the use of their smartphones.
If this trial program proves to be successful, then it could mean the expansion of this option to other locations.
The My Wendy’s application for users in Austin, Texas, Portland, Oregon, and Albuquerque, New Mexico will include the option for users to be able to use their smartphones to buy their meals when standing at the register in one of the restaurant locations once they’ve made their orders.
The mobile payments option will need to be selected in the app in order to use the feature.
To be able to take advantage of mobile payments at one of the participating locations, the smartphone user will first need to download the My Wendy’s app. For the purposes of this pilot program, this will be the only application that will function to pay with smartphones in one of the restaurants. Other mobile wallets will not be accepted as of yet.
The mobile payments program at Wendy’s is different from two of the most common methods of smartphone transaction currently being used: QR codes and NFC technology. Though the fast food chain hasn’t spoken out against those technologies, it has opted to use a method in which the app creates a one time use numeric code. That code is provided to the cashier when the purchase is being made.
The code has been linked to a mobile payments account – such as a gift card or a credit card, depending on what has been registered by the user – and the amount of the purchase is then debited from that account when the code is entered into the register by the Wendy’s employee.
In order to help to encourage customers to give the mobile payments option a try, Wendy’s has also offered a discount and rewards opportunities to users who choose this transaction method.
