Sunday, April 10, 2011

"Pay by phone" at Starbucks, and well, basically anywhere near you!

In early 2009, Starbucks launched its pilot pay-by-phone application, also known as Starbucks Card Mobile with payment support at select San Francisco, New York City, and Target locations. Subsequently, Starbucks reported over 1.5 Billion dollars in mobile payments made through BlackBerry and iPhone smart phones.


According to Mashable.com,  the Starbucks Card Mobile app lets users add their Starbucks Cards, track rewards, which they receive for every Starbucks purchase,  and reload cards as needed via PayPal or bank debit/credit card. To pay with their phone, app users simply select “touch to pay,” hold up the app-generated barcode on their mobile device screen to the 2-D scanner at the register, and presto!




Following the success of the pilot program, as of January 19th, the mobile app is now accepted at over 6,800 Starbucks locations and over 1,000 Target locations nationwide and has been used by over 3 Million people as of March 24th.


According to Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, the past financial quarter was the best performing in the 40-year history of the company. In fact, Starbucks cards now account for 22% of all transactions, he says. 






Mobile payments is just one element of a much larger social and digital media strategy that Schultz refers to as a “blueprint for growth.” This involves the brand crossing over into the consumer packaged goods (CPG) category by leveraging its digital and social properties. Remarkably, the Starbucks brand is number one on Facebook with 29 million fans, and is also a top brand on both Twitter and Foursquare.


If the mass-early adoption that has taken place with Starbucks Card Mobile is any indication of the inclination of smartphones users towards mobile payments, then American Express will surely need a new slogan, because people will be leaving home without it!




Cheers,






Sources:
Mobile Payments
CNN Tech
Starbucks Newsroom
USA Today

No comments:

Post a Comment