Starbucks starts delivery service in Seattle

Starbucks rolled out its delivery service in Seattle on Wednesday in its partnership with Postmates that was first announced this spring.

Starbucks says it doesn’t have a timeline for offering delivery in Bellevue, Redmond, or additional Seattle neighborhoods.

Starbucks officials have described delivery as a potential game changer for the brand as more customers use the mobile app to order and pay ahead. In an article on TechCrunch today, it is mentioned that the price for delivery is $5.99 not including the tip. The fee is quite high and is likely to discourage people from ordering a single beverage.

Although it is aiming to deliver within half an hour, which looks set to be the industry-standard metric for ‘on-demand, ‘ “initially, customers will be given a 60 minute window for delivery”.

While Postmates has partnered with chains including McDonald’s and Chipotle in delivery tests, the Starbucks collaboration is unique in that customers order from the Starbucks app, not the Postmates app or website. This is not the first time that the company has tried to roll out its delivery services.

The company hasn’t stated yet if a broader roll-out of the program will occur. Starbucks baristas from the outlet that faces 33th Street-side of the building prepared and delivered the orders. It lets customers place orders through the Starbucks mobile application on iOS or Android in over 7,400 stores. After selecting delivery, the app then asks for the user’s address. Mobile payments account for 20 percent of all in-store transactions across the US, a company spokesperson noted this September, and Starbucks processes almost nine million mobile transactions each week. Customers can follow their delivery in real-time on a map.