Starbucks Brings Its Fast Pay & Ordering To The UK

One hundred and fifty London stores will take part in the initial pilot, and Starbucks says feedback from customers in the USA has found users saved up to 15 minutes by using the system.

First launched in the USA past year, Mobile Order and Pay works through the My Starbucks Rewards loyalty programme in the current Starbucks app, and allows users to customise their drink and food orders ahead of placing them.

The new feature means that your drink should just be waiting for you when you arrive at Starbucks, no more waiting to pay and waiting for it to be made.

From today October 1 – the inaugural global Coffee Day no less – the coffee behemoth’s United Kingdom customers will be able to pre-order their morning latte on their mobile phone using the app. The order is then sent to your selected local Starbucks, where staff begin to prepare it, and you are sent an approximate collection time for when it will be ready.

Ian Cranna, Vice President Marketing & Category EMEA, commented: “We Brits are famous for queuing, but in an age of such sophisticated technology ‘why wait?’. “We think the easy-to-use feature will meet our customers” needs for convenience and customisation at any time of the day”.

At launch mobile order and pay will be available at 150 branches throughout Central London, with plans to expand outwards as adoption picks up. On top of that, the feature is rolling out to iOS devices only for now, but Android support is on the way.