Starbucks has been reported to be testing a new process for placing orders with mobile devices.
A report from Re/code said the Seattle-based coffee chain wants to make sure its customers are able to use the mobile Starbucks app to place orders ahead of time and pick them up as soon as they show up to the Starbucks location of their choice, according to PC Magazine. The new process will be tested at an undisclosed location later this year.
Possible benefits to come from the app include baristas not having to write out complicated orders, as well as coffee drinkers who order with mobile devices being able to skip the normal line and go right to the pick-up spot to retrieve their drinks.
Adam Brotman, chief digital officer at Starbucks, said customers have been requesting this option for a while, but it wasn't until recently that Starbucks believed its in-store operations and technology were capable of providing customers with pickups on site. The company is interested in making sure it can respond to potential problems just as much as it is interested in creating the best process for orders, PYMNTS reported.
"We're trying to get things down to a science," Brotman told Re/code.
The company is also trying to find potential business partners so its customers can buy products in other stores with the Starbucks app.
"We want to get mobile ordering right first, but you could be hearing more about us in the mobile wallet or universal loyalty space soon than later," Brotman said.
Starbucks wants to make the service available nationwide eventually, but has not revealed when exactly it will be able to meet this goal.
"We will do this and we will get it right," Brotman said.
