Apple Pay Tests Order Ahead At A Music Festival

Apple Pay is looking to add another service to its mobile payments system, testing out an “Order Ahead” feature at a recent music festival.

According to TechCrunch, the feature was tested at Napa Valley’s BottleRock music festival last weekend. At just 100 miles from Apple’s headquarters, this isn’t the first time the festival has been used to test out Apple Pay.

Last year, every concession stand was equipped with the Square’s Apple Pay-ready point of sale system and special fast lanes for customers who used the payment method. Apple reported that 30 percent of all transactions at BottleRock were made with Apple Pay.

This year, the Order Ahead feature allowed users to simply open the festival’s app, select the closest concession stand, choose their drinks, Apple Pay with either their face or fingerprint and finally pick up the beverages at a dedicated window without the hassle of waiting in line.

Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple Pay will make its debut in Norway, Poland, and the Ukraine in the next several months. Cook said Apple Pay exhibited good growth during the first three months of the year, with active users more than doubling year over year. In addition, the CEO said total transactions tripled on a year-over-year basis.

“We believe the availability of Apple Pay at major transit systems has been a key driver of adoption among commuters, and in March, we launched Express Transit with Apple Pay in Beijing and Shanghai — the second- and third-largest transit systems in the world,” Cook said.

And the company continues to find ways to attract users. In May, Apple ran a promotion offering customers free grocery delivery with Instacart when they made purchases via the digital payment service. Apple also announced at the same time that Apple Pay was made available at Trader Joe’s, Giant, Smart & Final, SuperValu, Food Lion and Winn Dixie.