Digital payments platform FreeCharge announced its exclusive partnership with Westlife Development Ltd, owner of the master franchisee of fast food chain McDonald's west and south India operations. This will allow McDonald's customers to make offline payments using their FreeCharge wallet.
The service has gone live starting January 14, 2016 across all these restaurants, the offline integration has been rolled out across 216 McDonald's restaurants spread across 26 cities in West and South regions of India, the company said. To encourage adoption, FreeCharge has launched a 50 percent cashback offer for customers on their first transaction, with a maximum cashback of Rs. 100. The offer will be valid till January 31, the company said.
The integration uses an On-the-Go Pin authentication method, which lets customers generate a code on the FreeCharge wallet even the smartphone is not connected to the Internet. The partnership will help strengthen its reach in F&B sector, the company said.
Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge, said that McDonald's implementation was the most stringent test a payment system can undergo. "We worked closely with McDonald's to deliver a 'built-to-order' product as per their specifications. The transactions are done within 10 seconds in a secure manner. Most importantly McDonald's did not have to make any extra investment to integrate our product," he said in an emailed statement.
FreeCharge had entered into a partnership with fashion retailer Shoppers Stop in November 2015. FreeCharge claims to have over 30 million registered users and 15 million active wallet users on its wallet, launched in September 2015, and available on the App Store, Play Store and Windows Store.
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