Starbucks coffee app expands nationwide

The Seattle-based coffee giant will also enable the feature, previously available only on Apple devices, on its Android app, expanding its universe to the other half of smartphone users. This coffee sorcery all takes place within the Starbucks app. No longer will you have to get to the store and wait in a long line of java guzzlers, then go through the hassle of describing, paying for and waiting for your order. Well, there’s an app for that!

Officials with Taco Bell, which has a huge Millennial audience, told an investors conference earlier this year that their mobile app customers were spending more than those who made their order through a human cashier-bulking up their ticket with add-ons like sour cream and nacho cheese.

Starbucks launched the service last December in Portland, OR.

When the Starbucks app on your phone is open, an order option now appears.

What’s hilarious is that it’s blatantly designed to appeal to exactly the kind of person you do not want to be stuck behind in Starbucks, even if the company themselves will never admit it. They even have the nutritional information built into it, although now it doesn’t change when you tweak your order.

“Bringing Mobile Order and Pay to our customers is about meeting their needs of convenience and customisation at any time of the day”, said Adam Brotman, Starbucks’ chief digital officer.

Once an order is placed, the app gives you an ETA for the finished mocha-frappa-whatever – and anything else you might’ve ordered – so all you have to do is stop in and pick up the goods.

It looks like the trial was a success, because Starbucks is now releasing this feature nationwide. Today’s launch alone covers 3,400 stores in some of its top markets, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Boston. These mobile payments represent about 20 percent of all Starbucks’ US transactions. Starbucks plans to introduce this feature in select company-owned stores in the United Kingdom and Canada in October. But Starbucks’ Mobile Order and Pay offers one distinct advantage. This feature could make picking up a drink a more efficient process for customers and boost sales for the company. The customer picks up the order in the “bar” area of the coffee shop without languishing in line.