VentureBeat.com reports that Starbucks has said that “more than 42 million mobile payments since the U.S. launch of its mobile pay program less than 15 months ago.” Last December, about a year after the program was launched, Starbucks said that 26 million payments had been processed; the new update suggests that acceptance and usage of the mobile program is growing exponentially.
As the story describes it, “customers use the mobile app to load money on to a digital Starbucks Card and then present a 2D barcode to pay-by-scan at the register. Mobile pay first launched in the U.S., but has since migrated to Canada and the U.K., and was recently made available to customers ordering from drive-thru windows.”
As the story describes it, “customers use the mobile app to load money on to a digital Starbucks Card and then present a 2D barcode to pay-by-scan at the register. Mobile pay first launched in the U.S., but has since migrated to Canada and the U.K., and was recently made available to customers ordering from drive-thru windows.”
- KC's View:
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This is a great little piece of technology, and I use mine frequently. However, I would argue that Starbucks misses - or deliberately avoids - one of the real ways it could be used to reward customers.
If one has a Starbucks card, one gets a free coffee for every 15 purchased. But the company offers that reward via a post card with a coupon that shows up in the mail.
It would make a lot more sense if, when using the mobile app, the 16th coffee was automatically free. Such a system would provide a lot more value to the consumer.
I suspect the use of the post card is designed to provide value to the company. I have a bunch of them sitting on my desk, and I often forget to bring them ... which means that Starbucks offered me a deal but did not actually have to deliver. Good for them, not so good for me.
I think these kinds of schemes are obvious, and that in the long run they hurt companies that are more concerned about themselves than the shopper that makes them possible.
