Note from the CEO:  Since we at FintekNews are at our local Starbucks six (yup, 6) mornings a week this caught our eye. Not surprised that the coffee giant is the number one leader globally in mobile payments since we watch (yeah, we are coffee shop voyeurs) how the lines have changed. Our stand? The mobile apps are really “line cutter inners”.

Starbucks rolled out mobile order and pay account a little over a year ago and those transaction now account for 25% of all their business. Mobile payments in general 10% of all transactions. This is one very VERY smart company. Now, leading world-wide in mobile payments is just the beginning and wait till the AI-powered “My Barista” becomes available in 2017. The “My Starbucks Barista” is going to replace Ashley? Noooooooo.

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Rolled out across the United States in 2015, now Mobile Order and Pay accounts for 25% of all US Starbucks transactions. Overall, mobile payments represent roughly 10% of all transactions processed by Starbucks.


Hence, the obvious question here is HOW? How Starbucks quietly became the world-wide leader in mobile payments leaving technology giants like Apple, Samsung and Google behind.

Everything began in 2008, when Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO, after 8 years away. The coffee chain was struggling at that time – Starbucks on every corner was not something people really wanted.

Few moths after the return, during the annual shareholders’ meeting, Schultz delivered an inspiring speech. He understood that customer experience needed a reboot, thus, the idea of the rewards card was born. The idea here was more than clear: the more you visit Starbucks, the more rewards you will get."

Source: Linkedin.Pulse