Since the initial launch of the Starbucks app in January 2011, its rate of mobile transactions through smartphones has doubled, and has broken the 26 million mark.
These figures mean that the café chain has surpassed all of the more obvious mobile leaders, including Google, PayPal, eBay, Visa, and MasterCard.
According to a press release by the company, within the last nine weeks alone, mobile devices were used by Starbucks customers in order to complete approximately 6 million transactions, which is an increase of three million transactions over the first nine weeks that the payment app was available.
The Starbucks app allows customers to use mobile gift cards that can be automatically refilled using the individual’s credit card. In order to make a purchase, the phone is held so that the screen is facing the barista, who uses a barcode reading device to scan it. The transaction is then complete.
According to venture capitalist, Howard Lindzon, a co-founder of StockTwits, an investing social network, Starbucks is the first major crossover from brick-and-mortar shop to the web which has fully embraced mobile channels. Lindzon added that the advantages of this will be significant “as they crush small independents again with the iPhone being the way people need and want to pay for their drugs (caffeine included).”
Starbucks has been the first to do what other companies have not yet been capable of achieving, due to their customer base sophistication, and the sheer simplicity of their mobile app. Furthermore, Starbucks customers simply seem to trust the brand with their credit card data.
