Apple Pay to expand to Starbucks, Chili’s, KFC this year

The mobile-payment application of Starbucks (SBUX) has also been a successful story, as it accounted for 20% of transactions at the US stores of coffee chain.

Apple Pay’s roll-out has been slow and has also failed to gain much traction, partly due to lack of acceptance at various retail stores. Now, it looks as if Apple has inked a deal that will greatly expand the presence of its mobile payments solution.

With the recent launch of Android Pay and Samsung pay, Apple of course intends to make a mark in this NFC-based industry. And you can now book flights within Delta’s Fly Delta app with Apple Pay. Apple Pay is now offered in the U.S. and United Kingdom, with Canadian and Chinese consumers expected to be next in line to have the service at their disposal. Starting next year you’ll be able to tap and pay with your iPhone or Apple Watch at all Starbucks registers across the country.

The Apple Pay executive went on to discuss the loyalty program, although declining to comment specifically on the Starbucks program.

For example, electronics retailer Best Buy supports purchasing items via Apple Pay at all of its 1,400 stores. According to Nizar Assanie, the Vice President of Research at IEMR, “globally, we are expecting mobile payment revenue to rise from $47.2 billion in 2011 to $998.5 billion in 2016”. She also revealed KFC and Chili’s will support Apple Pay in 2016.

We recently talked about Apple’s tokenization system and what it entails.

Starbucks has been running a limited Apple Pay service for nine months: Users can reload loyalty cards through the official Starbucks app, but can’t pay for coffee and a muffin with Apple Pay.

Finally, one of the most overlapping Venn diagrams in the world, with Starbucks drinkers in one circle and potential Apple Pay users in the other, will officially and fully merge.