What Happened
Starting today, Starbucks is rolling out a new Mobile Order and Pay feature in its branded mobile app. First tested in Portland back in December and now available at more than 7,400 stores nationwide, the new feature allows its customers to preorder and pay for their coffee and food before they arrive at the designated store for pick-ups, therefore eliminating the need to wait in line and vastly improving its in-store customers experience.
What Brands Should Do
By adding this convenient new feature to its already uber-popular app, the Seattle-based coffee shop chain is able to bring significant added value to its customers, while also driving more customers to its loyalty and rewards program. With mobile payment now reportedly counting for more than 20% of its sales, Starbucks leads as a frontrunner in courting today’s mobile-first customers and unifying its physical stores with digital sales channels, which provides a good example for retail and CPG brands to follow.
Source: Mashable
The promise has hung around mobile for years: Just pay with your phone. When any extra inconvenience can result in a lost sale, ease and convenience are paramount. The mobile promise of engaging with a customer anywhere, and immediately converting that engagement to a sale, has been the penultimate retail fantasy. So why has it taken so long to start to see this behavior?