Starbucks addicts have been flocking to the Starbucks Card Mobile application by the millions. In fact, the company says that three million users have already used the mobile app, available on the iPhone and on BlackBerry, to make payments inside 6,800 Starbucks locations.
Mashable reports:
“Starbucks now offers the nation’s largest mobile payment network,” vice president of Starbucks Brady Brewer added later in the meeting.
The Starbucks mobile payments offering is a “touch to pay” system. It allows the customer to hold up the app’s barcode to the in-store scanner at the register to pay using the electronic tender. The program was piloted at select stores in September 2009. After extensive testing, it was found to be the fastest way for customers to pay.
The past financial quarter was the best performing in the 40-year history of the company, according to Schultz. Starbucks cards now account for 22% of all transactions, he says.
The mobile payment system is attractive to users because of its convenience.Existing Starbucks Card owners already have accounts, and instead of using their plastic cards to make purchases, all they have to do is scan the phone app. Whether it’s more convenient to pull out one’s phone and open an app versus pulling a card out of a wallet is still up for debate. However, the novelty of it might make regular customers who don’t yet own Starbucks Cards sign up for one.
[Via: Mashable]