The simple answer is yes. Card network payment types almost never go away completely. This article, however, is focused on restaurants and mobile solutions. Pay at the table and “order online, pick up in-store” are new use cases that open up the opportunity to introduce new payment methods, from QR Codes to direct debit or prepaid:
“The food industry continues to evolve in ways of making things faster and easier for consumers. Starbucks recently launched a Pickup store in partnership with Amazon go.
“Our goal with this new store concept is to give our customers the ability to choose which experience is right for them as they go through their day, whether it is utilizing the Starbucks and Amazon apps to purchase food and beverages on the go or deciding to stay in the lounge for the traditional third place experience Starbucks is known for.” Katie Young, senior vice president of global growth and development at Starbucks said in a statement.
These types of convenient partnerships have carried over in the hotel industry as well. Hospitality tech company Criton has partnered with restaurant tech firm Hungrrr to add a safe, contactless food ordering system to its hotel guest app. The app allows guests to self-order and pay for food and drinks, both in the hotel restaurant or in-room, from their mobile device. This solution was designed to help hoteliers drive food-and-beverage revenues while also safeguarding the health of their guests.
With the need for a convenient way to order growing, Grubhub has created a partnership to extend it’s restaurant network to Transact’s CampusCash program to offer universities an off-campus meal spending program for students. The CampusCash program now allows its over 12 million students to use their cashless payments at over 300,000 restaurants nationwide.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group