Starbucks Reports 26 Million Mobile Transactions, A Good Sign Of Consumer Mobile Comfort
Written by Evan SchumanDecember 7th, 2011
Starbucks on Tuesday (Dec. 6) released select mobile transaction stats for 2011, showing some 26 million mobile transactions. More meaningfully, the chain said it had tracked $110.5 million reloaded via the mobile app, which is a tiny percentage (4.6 percent) of the $2.4 billion put onto Starbucks Cards through non-mobile means.
The Starbucks mobile app merely displays the same barcode that exists on the customer's plastic Starbucks Card. That means there is no wireless transmission, nor are any meaningful changes to the POS or card-swipe required. It does, however, require a change-of-behavior from the customer, and that might be the hardest and most valuable element.
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2 Comments | Read Starbucks Reports 26 Million Mobile Transactions, A Good Sign Of Consumer Mobile Comfort
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
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December 15th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Starbucks’ mobile payments program has been a great success for the company, but is it really all that consumer-friendly? After all, customers can only link their phones to a Starbucks prepaid card and then use the service only at Starbucks stores. What would happen if every retailer took the same approach?
I mean, would we want in the not-too-distant future to be using a separate app for each retailer and provide them personal information over and over again? Wouldn’t it be far safer and more convenient to have one or two mobile payments accounts with providers of our choosing and use whatever payment method (credit cards, debit cards bank accounts, etc.) we may feel like? http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/why-starbucks-platform-is-not-the-best-way-forward-for-mobile-payments
April 11th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Starbucks Mobile Pay is linked to a prepaid card and I, as many others, just don’t want to be using such cards. There is no reason anyone who can get a credit card should use a prepaid one, which has no effect on your credit score and gives you no rewards. Moreover, why should I get any payment card, which can only be use at Starbucks? If I did that, I should probably do the same for Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and many others? Where would that end? It simply makes no sense to me.