McDonald’s has struck a deal with international payments platform Adyen NV, which will receive and process payments made in the chain’s mobile app, according to a press release from Adyen.
The agreement will make Adyen’s payment platform available to McDonald’s locations starting in the U.K. in early 2020, with plans to expand internationally in the future.
Adyen’s claim to fame is that its system makes running and implementing mobile payments easy for businesses. Using what Adyen calls its “unified commerce experience,” businesses can more easily accept any type of digital payment across sales channels (e.g., mobile app, kiosk, etc.), add new ones, and create a consistent order and pay experience for customers across regions. In other words, ordering via the McDonald’s mobile app in China would look, feel, and function much the same as in the U.K., with the system automatically adjusting features like language, currency, and country-specific payment methods.
Adyen counts a number of high-profile clients on its roster, including Spotify, Uber, and Bonobos. In the food world, the company’s portfolio of restaurant companies is growing, too, with Domino’s, Dunkin’, and Deliveroo all using the Adyen system.
The benefit for McDonald’s here is scale. Because Adyen’s technology makes it easy to add payment methods and onboard franchisees, McDonald’s can, in theory at least, more quickly roll out a consistent order and pay experience across the globe. That frictionless experience for customers will be important for McDonald’s, who expects delivery to drive $4 billion of global system-wide sales in the future. Already, the chain has invested in plenty of technologies to help meet this demand. In March, the chain acquired AI company Dynamic Yield to improve menu personalization. More recently, in September of 2019, McDonald’s acquired voice-tech startup Apprente. Former CEO Steve Easterbrook — who many saw as the driving force behind all this tech — departed from the company in November, but that hasn’t slowed down any of McDonald’s tech ambitions.
Meanwhile, Adyen’s Chief Operating Officer Kamran Zaki hopes to eventually expand the new partnership to more than just mobile payments. Adyen currently offers a number of other payment platforms, including in-store kiosks, and mobile POS systems.
