Restaurants May Put NFC Smartphone Payments On The Menu

A payment-terminal maker and a restaurant-software provider are teaming up to enable restaurant patrons to use Near Field Communication-equipped smartphones to pay their tabs at the table. The contactless technology also integrates transaction information with business software.

San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone Systems Inc. is working with Columbia, Md.-based Micros Systems Inc. to provide what the companies call the “first practical NFC service” for restaurants, Michael L. Russo, Micros chief technology officer, tells PaymentsSource.

Though few NFC-equipped phones now exist, some observers expect that market to grow in the coming years (see story). Once the phones become available, diners and wait staff could bring their mobile devices within a few centimeters of each other to initiate the transaction, Russo says.

Bringing smartphone payments to restaurants represents an important milestone for the payment form because once consumers begin paying with phones for some goods and services, they will want to pay for everything that way, a VeriFone spokesperson says.

Moreover, consumers generally would not want to hand over their devices and watch restaurant employees take the phones to a backroom to make the transaction, the spokesperson says. The partnership’s technology alleviates the need for such complications by enabling transactions at the table, he says. 

Besides enabling smartphone payments, the technology helps automate restaurants, Russo says. Restaurant employees could use the system to take orders, relay the orders to the kitchen, control inventory and create automatic business reports, he notes.

Employees also may use devices for “line busting,” the term for taking orders from customers as they stand in line at the point of sale, Russo says.

The NFC-enabled applications also will redeem electronic coupons and promotions, according to a VeriFone press release. The integrated software relies on the VeriFone Payware Mobile Enterprise POS system, which adapts smartphones and personal digital assistants to accept payments, the release said.

Payware uses a PIN-debit keypad that helps merchants lower transactions costs, and it scans bar codes for inventory control, according to the release.

The integrated approach from the two companies will become available in the second half of this year, the companies said.

VeriFone and Micros have been working together on pay-at-the-table mobile devices that wait staff use to swipe cards since about 2007, Russo says.

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