Mobile payments are all the buzz when it comes to NFC. While several companies are developing mobile wallets, Starbucks is busy paving the way for the oncoming storm of mobile payments by making NFC technology more recognizable to the public. They have been doing this with their Starbucks Card Mobile. The card is both a physical and digital product and allows shoppers to make purchases at more than 9,000 stores throughout the U.S.
While the company supports the physical version of the card, they are more interested in its digital counterpart, which is a mobile application for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.
The Starbucks Card Mobile application taps into NFC technology to allow consumers to make purchases with their smart phones. The initiative has proven to be successful since its nationwide launch in January. Starbucks says that it processed more than 3 million payments only nine weeks after the rollout. The adoption of the application is due, in part, to its simplicity, according to Adam Brotman, vice president and general manager of digital ventures for Starbucks.
Brotman believes that simplicity is the key to mobile commerce. Companies coming up with complicated solutions to a seemingly mundane problem will only drive people away from mobile payments. The easier the platform is to understand, more likely consumers will have a favorable experience with it.
Starbucks is currently expanding the number of stores making use of their mobile payment system in the hopes of bringing NFC technology to the mainstream.
