Starbucks has Processed 20 Million Mobile Payments

Most contenders in the mobile payments or mobile wallet business are hoping to create large-scale platforms used by lots of retailers. Starbucks. on the other hand, has reasons of its own for creating a proprietary system that already has processed more than 20 million mobile payment transactions. 


The approach shows one way even "targeted" mobile payment applications and systems can add business value. For starters, the Starbucks approach does not require inventing anything new. It uses existing tools to quickly reach critical mass.

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Starbucks also has clear business drivers, mostly related to enhancing loyalty. 


Since each mobile payment account is tied to a Starbucks card, Starbucks increases the value and usage of its prepaid cards. 


That also means Starbucks benefits from the float on payment instruments that are pre-funded. Starbucks gets paid before products are delivered. There also is some amount of "breakage" as well, the small amounts that might be left on pre-paid cards, and never used.


Starbucks Mobile Pay, the company’s pay-by-mobile application and in-store scanner system, was rolled out nationwide in January 2011. The system, available at roughly 9,000 locations, lets iPhone, Android and BlackBerry users with the Starbucks or Starbucks Card Mobile applications pay with their phones by scanning 2D barcodes on the screen at store registers. Starbucks has processed 20 million mobile payments