What you need to know
- A Japanese coffee chain is showing off the power of App Clips in iOS 14.
- New Tokyo stores using the tech let customers order and pay for drinks in about 15 seconds.
A new report says coffee shops in Tokyo are using App Clips to transform their customer experience, letting customers order and pay in just 15 seconds.
From RFID Journal:
Customers at Japan's Kitasandō Coffee are placing orders and paying for their drinks within about 15 seconds using their iPhone with Apple's NFC App Clips. By providing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology built into dedicated placards, and with either the App Clips or the café's app downloaded onto a person's phone, the café's system was designed to eliminate or shorten queues.The result is fast turnaround times for customers and increased sales for the café. The system is provided by Kitasandō Coffee's parent company, Kankak, which is both a café and a technology firm. Kankak develops technology that it incorporates into its own cafés. Its app-based ordering system is being deployed at several more shops, the most recent being Kankak's Tailored Café, located in downtown Tokyo.
The report says Kitasandō in Tokyo is the first to show off Kankak's payment technology using App Clips and a dedicated app for menus. One developer at the firm says the new feature would realize "a world where you can buy delicious coffee immediately". And immediate it certainly is, the report says customers are able to order and pay for their coffee in just 15 seconds.
The new App Clips feature allows users to interact with certain apps and services without having to download the entire app, cutting out a huge amount of wait time from the process. You can read the full report here.
