Just 7% of consumers have used their mobile devices to pay at a retail location, according to a survey of 1,000 consumers released in September from credit card issuer Total Systems Services Inc. 

Samsung hopes to change that. It is  going on a seven-city roadshow to promote and walk consumers through how to use its store mobile payment system, Samsung Pay, which launched late last month.

For its tour, Samsung Electronics America Inc. is hitting Austin, Texas; Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Chicago and San Francisco and Los Angeles. At each stop, Samsung will work with local retailers to provide discounts on items and hands-on activities to give consumers an opportunity to try out Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay works on Galaxy S6, S6 edge, Note5 and S6 edge+ Samsung devices operating on the AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and U.S. Cellular networks in the United States. To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users swipe up on their device, scan their fingerprint and pay. Samsung Pay is compatible with most existing and new terminals, including most magnetic stripe terminals as well as EMV (short for EuroPay, MasterCard, Visa) terminals that are used for chip-based cards, which MasterCard and Visa mandated U.S. stores and card issuers to move to as of Oct. 1. It also works with NFC terminals, which stands for Near Field Communication, a short-range wireless technology that allows mobile phones to communicate with payment terminals. Samsung Pay says it works at more physical places than any other mobile payment service.

“Where better to showcase the most widely-accepted mobile payment service than at merchants and retailers in some of America’s most vibrant and iconic cities,” said Narayanan Murugesan, vice president of strategy and operations for Samsung Electronics America. “From Austin to Atlanta, from coffee shops to taco stands, Samsung Pay lets Galaxy owners pay with a wallet that’s already in their hands—on the card terminals retailers already have.”

Samsung kicked off the tour yesterday at Austin City Limits Music Festival with a Samsung Pay Block Party at the South Congress Hotel. Samsung will continue the Austin promotion throughout the weekend and festival-goers can pay for food, drinks and souvenirs with their phones using Samsung Pay. Consumers at the fest who use Samsung Pay also will get 50% off Austin City Limits festival gear  

Currently consumers need to have a participating MasterCard, Visa or American Express card issued by Bank of America, Citi, American Express or U.S. Bank to use to use Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay also offers merchant credit cards through its contract with Synchrony Financial and works with acquirers including First Data, Global Payments and Total Systems Services. Samsung says is working on additional deals to further roll out the payment option to more U.S. consumers.

Samsung Pay follows similar payment products from Apple Inc. (Apple Pay) and Google Inc. Android Pay.

Consumers, however, have been sluggish to pay with their phones in store. 26% of consumers in the aforementioned TSYS survey said they were interested in using their smartphone instead of a payment card to make a purchase at a store. Additionally, the 7% of survey respondents that said they have made a payment at a retail location with a mobile device is a decrease from the 9% of survey respondents who said they made a payment via mobile at a retail location in the same survey in 2014.

Additionally, only 13.1% of shoppers that have the newer Apple mobile devices that work with Apple Pay have ever tried the payment system at a store, according to a June study from shopper research firm InfoScout. 13.1% of consumers is less than InfoScout’s March Apple Pay survey, when 15.1% of Apple Pay-enabled consumers said they tried the mobile payment method. 

The InfoScout study was based on a survey of approximately 1,500 consumers who have an iPhone compatible with Apple Pay, made a transaction at a store that accepts Apple Pay and use one of InfoScout’s receipt-storing apps: Shoparoo, Receipt Hog, ReceiptBin or Out of Milk.

Samsung Pay has a couple challenges, says Thad Peterson, senior analyst at payment consulting firm Aite Group. For one, because of the deal that Google cut with the mobile operators for the former mobile wallet service Softcard, Android Pay will be the preferred mobile wallet on all Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T Android phones, including Samsung. Google owns the Android operating system.

Samsung Pay does have the ability to emulate a magnetic stripe at the point of sale but Peterson says this is a temporary differentiator. “I’m not sure if it’s significant enough to get customers to habituate with Samsung,” he says. “Also, there are some anecdotal reports that the technology doesn’t work consistently, which, if true is a real problem. Consumers won’t adopt a technology that doesn’t work every single time.”

Samsung did not immediately reply to a request to comment about Samsung Pay technology issues.  

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