Starbucks customers wake up to mobile transactions

Caffeine drinkers are waking up to the practice of using their mobile devices to pay for their fix, according to new figures released by Starbucks that reveal a significant jump in customer adoption of their mobile payment app.

by Helen Leggatt

2011 has been a year for mobile exploration for Starbucks, said Adam Brotman, SVP and GM Starbucks Digital Ventures. The café chain has launched several innovative programs including the Starbucks Card eGift, the augmented reality Starbucks Cup Magic app and, of course, the Starbucks for Android app.

Almost a year ago, in January 2011, Starbucks rolled out its mobile payment app to over 9,000 store locations across the U.S. Within the first nine weeks 3 million mobile transactions were made jumping to 6 million in the nine weeks beginning October.

In the eleven months since the launch over 26 million mobile transactions have been made.

"The customer response to our mobile apps has been phenomenal. Not only are they using their phone as a wallet, but as a connection point to Starbucks as they manage their Starbucks Card accounts, send eGifts and get into the holiday spirit with the Starbucks Cup Magic app," said Brotman.

As smartphone adoption increases so does the demand for mobile apps. Google announced this week that its Android Market has now reached a new download milestone by exceeding 10 billion in total.

Tags: Android, barcode, ecommerce, Google, mobile apps, mobile marketing, mobile payments, mobile transactions, mobile wallet, scanning

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Jay Gould

Starbucks' mobile payments program has been a great success for the company, but is it really all that consumer-friendly? After all, customers can only link their phones to a Starbucks prepaid card and then use the service only at Starbucks stores. What would happen if every retailer took the same approach?
I mean, would we want in the not-too-distant future to be using a separate app for each retailer and provide them personal information over and over again? Wouldn't it be far safer and more convenient to have one or two mobile payments accounts with providers of our choosing and use whatever payment method (credit cards, debit cards bank accounts, etc.) we may feel like? http://blog.unibulmerchants...

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