Starbucks mobile payment program brings customer loyalty

Starbucks Mobile commerce

Starbucks Mobile Marketing

Paying with mobile money makes consumers more likely to return.

Starbucks has been one of the top retailers offering mobile payments and has successfully made it simple and convenient for its consumers to purchase their coffees, also achieving an important boost to their loyalty.

The coffee company was one of the first to see the opportunity presented by the rapidly growing popularity of smartphones, and to implement a program that allows customers who own those devices to use them like mobile money. Their program has been in place since January 2011, and allows purchases to be made through the use of an Android smartphone, iPhone, or Blackberry.

“A lot of our customers have their phone in their hand when they come into our store.”

This was said by the Starbucks chief digital officer, Adam Brotman. He added that “We knew that customers were increasingly more mobile—were increasingly using their phone as a primary computing device.”

The company is now among America’s Most Connected Companies, according to U.S. News.

It was given this recognition due to the implementation of one of the biggest programs for mobile payment in North America. According to the company, this technology is also helping it to increase its sales. There have been approximately 45 million purchases using mobile money at the café’s locations across the United States since the feature was first launched.

According to Linda Mills, a spokesperson for Starbucks, there is now an average of one million mobile payments every week. Mills also explained that the company received ten times more purchases using mobile money in March 2012 than they did in that month a year before.

She stated that when “you compare year over year, or month over month, it’s growing very rapidly.” This is also greatly benefiting the consumer, as the lines move much more quickly through the use of this technology. The chains themselves incur fewer credit card fees, too, as the purchases are made through the use of preloaded loyalty cards. The result is that it is convenient, fast, and less expensive for everyone when smartphone mobile payments are used.

 

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