McDonald's and FreeCharge join hands to make meals rewarding

FreeCharge, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced its exclusive partnership with Westlife Development Ltd, owner of the Master Franchisee of brand McDonald’s west and south India, world’s largest chain of quick service restaurants. As part of the exclusive partnership, McDonald’s has implemented FreeCharge wallet to enable customers to make swifter, safer payments. This offline payment capability has been rolled out across 216 McDonald’s restaurants spread across 26 Cities in West & South regions of India. The service has gone live starting January 14, 2016 across all these restaurants.

As a leading and progressive food company, McDonald’s® has always kept a finger on the pulse of the consumer and has undertaken initiatives to drive convenience and accessibility to customers. We are completely obsessed about a great customer experience and the payments piece is an important part of this experience. We constantly aim to deliver customer experience tailored to meet their needs, and customers require an easy and convenient way to operate anytime, anywhere. FreeCharge Wallet allows us to harness the power of mobile technology to enhance our dine-in experience and helps bridge the gap between our online and in-store consumer interactions.

We’re excited to partner with an industry leader and are committed to continuing to play a leadership role in the development of cutting-edge technology that will deliver value and engage our customers in personal ways. We believe, with this partnership, we will be able to provide innovative digital payment solutions to our customers, said Ranjit Paliath, Sr. Vice President, Business Operations, McDonald’s India – west and south region.” 

Commenting on the challenges in crafting a world class payment experience tailor made for McDonald’s, Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge, said, “We are excited to partner with McDonald’s to launch the swiftest yet safest payment method for customers. McDonald’s immense popularity demanded that we process payments in less than 30 seconds. Given the scale, the need for speed, McDonald’s implementation was the most stringent test a payment system can undergo."

He further added, "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. We have developed an innovative authentication – On- the-Go PIN, with which the customers can generate a code on their app even if it's not connected to the internet. Expansion of the FreeCharge footprint to the offline use cases is another step in building a world class payment OS for a digital India. Our goal is to enable commerce by creating the most frictionless form of digital payments.”

To encourage adoption of new forms of payments, FreeCharge will also be launching slew of offers in coming months for customers. First in line is 50% cash back for customers on their first transaction with a maximum cash back of INR 100. The offer will be valid from 18^th January to 31st. Customers can easily order both offline and online using FreeCharge wallet. They can augment home delivery experience by easy ordering at verified addresses through Tele Check out and Pay on delivery and make their meal ordering truly rewarding.

FreeCharge wallet already has over 15 million active users and is on a journey to create a digital payments ecosystem for customers to use as part of their day-to-day activities. After the successful partnership with India’s leading fashion retailer - Shoppers Stop, FreeCharge’s partnership with McDonald’s will help strengthen the reach in F&B sector.

McDonald’s globally is continuously innovating, across platforms to offer world-class experience by adapting to newer technologies to keep up with changing consumer habits. Last year, McDonald’s pioneered in launching the queue busting technology among the QSR sector with the introduction of Tablet Order Taker equipped with cashless transactions to help ease the traffic during peak hours at our restaurants across west and south India. It is McDonald’s constant endeavor to foster digital rollout at the restaurants, and support quick order fulfilment through multiple touch points by further increasing the efficiency of our services and adding convenience to our customers’ dine-in experience.