Starbucks expanding mobile order, pay services

The Mobile Order & Pay feature allows customers to choose a store from a map view, browse, select and customize beverage and food items, view the estimated timeframe the order will be ready, and pre-pay for the order – all within the Starbucks® Mobile App. Menu options highlight products available in specific geographic regions and stores, and orders are freshly prepared and ready for pick-up in the bar area.

Coffee-addicts now have another reason to love coffee even more as Starbucks launches its mobile order service.

The order and pay app for lovers of Starbucks has now been expanded from being available in only the Pacific Northwest to being available nationwide in their almost 7,400 U.S. locations. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS platforms. With Mobile Order & Pay, you can conveniently order drinks from Starbucks in advance. Starbucks plans to introduce this feature in select company-owned stores in the United Kingdom and Canada in October.

After this week’s launch, the next step for Starbucks is to roll the service out to its franchise stores in places like airports and grocery stores.

Here’s the fun part: After the transaction is completed in the app, users can skip the line and instead head to the pick-up counter where they can ask a barista for their order. He said the technology had the potential to lure customers who may have been turned off by long lines and waiting times. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also reportedly plants to turn the payments made through the mobile app into a loyalty program.

The company declined to say what percentage of its orders in Portland, where the system has been in place for nine months, come from its mobile order and pay service.

The expansion includes some 3,400 cafes – including those in major cities such as San Francisco, Boston, New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. – and extends the service to Android mobile device users. Initially, Starbucks introduced the mobile ordering service in 2012 through La Boulange (a bakery chain) that it had acquired the previous year.