If you have a BlackBerry smartphone or an Apple mobile device, you can now pay for your White Chocolate Mocha — or your double espresso or your Pike’s Roast — quickly on the go. That’s because Starbucks just launched mobile payments in all of its U.S. company-operated stores.
The coffee retailer’s latest innovation builds on Starbucks Card Mobile App for select BlackBerry smartphones, iPhone and iPod touch devices, as well as a successful mobile-payment test program. Starbucks is billing it as the fastest way to pay in 7,800 stores across the country.
Starbucks may seem early to the mobile-payments game, but the momentum has been building. Generator Research revealed that the global mobile-payment market reached about $69 million in 2009, the last year for which data is available. By 2014, the firm predicts mobile payments will reach $633 billion a year as 490 million customers use their smartphones to pay for goods.
The Mobile-Payment Sweet Spot
“Today, one in five Starbucks transactions is made using a Starbucks card, and mobile payment will extend the way our customers experience and use their Starbucks card,” said Brady Brewer, vice president for Starbucks card and brand loyalty. “With mobile payment, the Starbucks card platform further elevates the customer experience by delivering convenience, rewarding loyalty, and continuing to build an emotional connection with our customers.”
If you want to use mobile payments at Starbucks, you need to download the free Starbucks Card Mobile App for select BlackBerry smartphones, or Apple’s iPhone or iPod touch. Starbucks settled on BlackBerry and Apple because three-quarters of its smartphone-using customers have those mobile devices.
Here’s how it works: You can pay with your smartphone by holding the mobile device in front of a scanner on the countertop and scan the Starbucks Card Mobile App’s on-screen bar code to make a purchase.
Beyond the…