The coffee chain giant will now be accepting WeChat smartphone transactions to pay for purchases.
The Starbucks QR code based payments are now being accepted in Chinese locations. The coffee chain announced that WeChat users will now be able to pay for their food and beverage purchases with the mobile app’s Weixin Pay.
The initial introduction of the QR codes will include around 2,500 of the company’s Chinese cafes.
To use the Starbucks QR code, customers must simply scan the code at the checkout counter. This is completed through Weixin Pay. The mobile payments technology makes it possible to carry out the entire transaction over the smartphone.
Customers will be using mobile payments at Starbucks as a result of a new agreement between the café and Tencent Holidings Ltd. This makes the coffee chain only the latest fast food company to offer Chinese consumers a mobile wallet payment option.
The Starbucks QR code has already proven to be very popular in other countries including the United States.
In China, mobile payments are becoming increasingly commonplace. Disney, KFC and Uniqlo already offer m-payment opportunities in their Chinese locations.
At the moment, there are approximately 200 million Chinese consumers using Weixin Pay and Alipay – Weixin’s rival owned by Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. Consumers have embraced the technology due to the checkout speed it offers in-store.
That said, as popular as mobile payments are becoming in China, many foreign retailers are hesitant to introduce them. The main worry is regarding a customer privacy breach through the data collected during the transaction.
According to China Market Research Group managing director Shaun Rein, “Accepting mobile payment would unlock massive value for Starbucks.” He also added that “Since they couldn’t move customers through the line faster, they were losing 5 to 10 percent of business.”
The Starbucks QR code will provide precisely that opportunity. Customers can step up to the counter, order their beverage and scan the quick response code to verify and complete the transaction. This will also help to boost its strength in the competition with its top rival Costa Coffee. That company has been accepting mobile payments for more than a year.
The long awaited product demonstration has been accused of consisting of smoke and mirrors.
For a very long time, the industry has been waiting for the first Magic Leap augmented reality demonstration. There has been a great deal of secrecy surrounding the development of this brand’s technology. This has allowed the hype to build substantially over the many months.
The augmented reality demonstration has gone viral over YouTube, promising an astounding experience.
What was known about the tech under development was that Magic Leap augmented reality was going to be different from anything else out there. The company has been promising to change the way we think of AR. With such dazzling promises, it was clear that anything produced would not be on market shelves at any time soon.
This concept was only reinforced when beta testers were given access to early versions of the tech concept and were required to use a considerable amount of hardware just to make it work.
Now that Magic Leap augmented reality demonstrations have been made, the brand is facing stiff criticism.
Nobody assumed that the Magic Leap marketing would be precisely what consumers would be seeing when the hardware was produced. However, the company is now being criticized for going far overboard in their simulations. The public was promised an unbelievable experience and that’s exactly what the demo is suggesting might be the case – it’s not to be believed.
The video made to simulate what Magic Leap would have to offer included the work of a special effects firm. This set expectations very high and may make it very difficult for the brand to be able to deliver. The March 2015 viral video took in 3.5 million views. However, reports quoting former employees of the company revealed that the game illustrated in the video didn’t actually exist.
The demonstration of the current Magic Leap augmented reality experience is less than mesmerizing. As much as it is still advanced, impressive tech, it continues to rely on a large and clunky helmet that uses a number of cables to wire it to a powerful computer. The goal is to one day compress that tech to hardware that is more “spectacle-like”.
