The release of Starbuck’s Order and Pay app has been a huge plus as consumers have quickly latched on to its benefit. Much like many of the best digital innovations, it’s a simple idea with a big impact.
Starbucks did face a challenging 2017, with a drop of 61% in profit at the beginning of the year. But that hasn’t stopped the coffee giant from continuing its innovative approach to food and drink retail.
The Order and Pay app allows consumers to pre-order their food and drink choices, rather than having to go through the rigmarole of queueing, ordering, and paying in person. This saves times for the customers as well as the business, ramping up customer turnover and their orders at each branch to optimize profitability. Particularly important during peak hours.
Familiarity Factor
This operational streamlining has been enhanced by a second feature that has been recently added to the Starbucks Mobile App.
The My Starbucks Barista tool allows customers to order and pay using their voice alone. Partnering with Amazon’s Alexa voice command software, the feature recreates the experience that Starbucks believes is a foundational aspect in the success of their retail model: the interaction between friendly barista and the regular client.
The hard work that has gone into this has paid dividends for Starbucks, with a massive update in use of the app from consumers that accounts for 7% of all its transactions in the US. It also demonstrates the veracity of two of the five key points in Webloyalty’s The 5Ps of Shopper Motivation study. The Order and Go and My Starbucks Barista apps merge to offer the practicality motivated shopper a time-saving advantage and the personalisation motivated shopper the familiar, personal touch that they expect of their regular coffee shop.
A Winning Recipe
Addressing the needs of two major client behaviour groups through this combined app offered some good news to Starbucks during a turbulent year in the UK, with the company reporting a dramatic increase in repeat orders and loyalty.
This, though, seems likely to be only the beginning of achievable improvements in consumer targeting for the food and drinks retailer. With Amazon’s Alexa on board and becoming more common in people’s homes every day, Starbucks is likely to have the data to make some interesting advances in its consumer personalisation.
Digital Retail Innovations Report
Take a look at the other 49 top innovations from the UK & Ireland in The Retail Insider Digital Retail Innovations report, it highlights some of the most interesting technological developments which are taking place in the retail sector.
