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The
expansion includes some 3,400 cafes - including those in major
cities such as San Francisco, Boston, New York, Chicago and
Washington, D.C. - and extends the service to Android mobile
device users.
Mobile Order & Pay is a feature on the Starbucks app, which the
company says has 16 million active users on Apple and Android
devices in the United States. Up until now, the app could only
be used in-store to pay for a purchase. The new service allows
users to place orders and pay for them from a remote location,
and then pick up the order at the store.
Adam Brotman, Starbucks' chief digital officer, said the coffee
chain refined a variety of features before the expansion. Those
help customers customize food and beverage orders, check local
inventories for the availability of product and accurately
calculate pick-up times.
"We're hearing (from users) that is creating a whole bunch of
new occasions" to visit Starbucks, Brotman said. In particular,
he said, it makes it easier for time-crunched workers and
parents to drop in and for speech- and hearing-impaired
customers to customize orders.
Starbucks plans to introduce the feature in select company-owned
stores in the United Kingdom and Canada in October, Brotman
said.
Starbucks tested Mobile Order & Pay in Portland, Oregon, last
December. It released it across the Pacific Northwest in March
and gradually expanded its reach.
In July, Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz said Mobile
Order & Pay was bolstering sales and profit at the roughly 4,000
U.S. cafes where it was available. He said the technology had
the potential to lure customers who may have been turned off by
long lines and waiting times.
"Lines are shorter, service is faster and in-store operations
are more efficient" at cafes where the service is available,
Schultz said at the time.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie
Adler)
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