Apple Pay Locations Reach Million, With Chick-Fil-A to Come

Apple Inc. said its mobile-payment service is now available in more than 2 million retail locations, with merchants such as Crate & Barrel, Chick-fil-A and Au Bon Pain rolling it out in stores.

Apple has been looking to further expand its Apple Pay services, with brands like KFC and Chili’s expected to roll out Apple Pay services this year, while all Starbucks stores will support the payment services system in the current year. According to a survey by consumer researcher Pymnts and InfoScout, 16.6 percent of people who own newer iPhones tried Apple Pay in October, an increase from 9 percent in November 2014.

With the mobile payment space getting more crowded by the day, these milestones are big for Apple.

Aki Iida, the head of mobile at Zappos stated that the retailer has been receiving a lot of customer requests to allow them to use Apple Pay.

The adoption of Apple Pay compliments Chick-fil-A’s own Mobile Pay technology, which is accessible via the company’s mobile app. Senior manager of digital experience Michael Lange says, “Chick-fil-A is focused on using technology to provide convenient ways for guests to interact with our restaurants”. Those services may compete with or incorporate Apple Pay, and Apples strategy is to get into as many of these wallets as possible to grab a piece of the action.

Apple has recently informed that Apple card reader by Square became available both online and in retail stores for $49.

Apple Pay and Samsung Pay especially have been scrambling to China, which makes up a huge slice of the mobile payment market.

iPhone users will soon be able to get their chicken fix without busting out their wallets. This means that Zappo users can pay with Apple Pay rather than entering their card information while shopping at Zappos.