Brilliant article about what Macca's Japan are doing with their contactless payment system, "Toku". According to the article published in Mobile Commerce Daily, 8 million customers have already signed up.
The author of the article, Red Gillen stated:
“Customers (now about 18 million of them) register as members of McDonald’s “Toku” promotional program. On a weekly basis (in time for the weekend), McDonald’s sends program members a mobile e-mail, with a list of coupons and promotions available that week. Customers then have two choices. One is to use their mobile browser to open mobile coupons, which are shown to McDonald’s cashiers (a promotional code is clearly visible). The other, if customers have already downloaded the McDonald’s app (which 8 million have already done), is to download the coupons to their contactless mobile wallet.”
What's amazing about this is that we're not only seeing a contactless payment system in place but a loyalty-redemption program that can be tailored to specific shopper preferences.
There continues to be a lot of talk in the market at the moment about NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled devices with iphone 5 (and Nokia next-gen) predicted to be the handset leaders in 2011. Having NFC enabled mobile phones will likely be the tipping point for contactless payment in the US.....probably about 5 years away in our market but definitely still something for us to keep a close watch on.
(via mobile commerce daily)
