You really want convenience stores to double down on convenience at every opportunity, ensuring everything is as easy as possible the moment you walk through the door. But for fans of Apple Pay and Google Pay, this hasn’t been the case at 7-Eleven. Until this month, that is.
It’s been a long time coming, but 7-Eleven is about to support both of these contactless payment services, banishing the annoyance — or sheer inconvenience — of having to handle fiddly coins or fish around for a bill whenever you hit the checkout.
It means that so long as you have a compatible smartphone or smartwatch, you’ll be able to simply tap your device on the store’s reader when you go to pay for your goods. OK, it’s not quite as convenient as Amazon’s super-convenient Go store, but it’s a step in the right direction, for sure.
Support for Apple Pay and Google Pay is rolling out at the majority of 7-Eleven’s U.S. stores throughout September, adding to the company’s other mobile payment options that also include Samsung Pay.
“Frictionless experiences are the future, and digital payments are key to such experiences,” 7-Eleven executive Gurmeet Singh said in a release.
Singh said 7-Eleven’s aim is to “adopt consumer-facing technology to enhance the customer experiences, as well as the technologies that work behind the scenes to ensure seamless and effortless interactions.”
Other efforts by 7-Eleven in the tech space include its 7-Eleven Now app that allows online ordering, and 7Rewards, an app-based customer loyalty program that lets shoppers earn and redeem points at the checkout. And didn’t it dabble in drone deliveries a while back?
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed a few months ago that Apple Pay was on its way to 7-Eleven’s 10,000 or so U.S. stores, and now it has finally landed.
If you’re new to the idea of making contactless payments using your iPhone or Android device, Digital Trends has all the information you need. Check out this page to find out how to use Apple Pay, and this one to learn all about Google Pay. And as we’ve already mentioned it, here’s everything you need to know about Samsung Pay, too.
