Starbucks

Shopping and paying for goods with a smartphone or tablet has been a staple of modern consumerism for years, but mobile wallet adoption is just at its early stages, writes Lisa Stanton, president of InAuth.

Starbucks has hit a mobile payments milestone, with 30% of all U.S. transactions now coming through mobile, and to smooth operations surrounding its popular Mobile Order & Pay service, the company is introducing digital-ordering specialists at its busiest stores.

Led by Starbucks and Apple's mobile payment apps, there's a boom underway and retailers need to act fast to avoid being left behind.

Retailers should focus on creating a premium experience for a broad range of customers, writes Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.

Mobile apps still account for only about one percent of transactions. There are a few ways to increase adoption, such as targeting payment types that are already tough to make with cash.

Starbucks customers will soon be able to send Starbucks gifts to other iOS device users via Apple Inc.’s iMessage platform with Apple Pay.

Other quick serve establishments such as Starbucks have had challenges in managing the changes in customer flow that accompany order and pay.

The mobile point of sale company's partnership with the coffee chain was designed to bring Square's mobile payments technology into Starbucks locations. But the partnership didn't pan out and ended a couple of years ago.

The technology complements Starbucks successful mobile technology, which includes a widely used payments app as well as rewards and order-ahead.

Starbucks Corp.’s much-ballyhooed mobile-ordering system has brought a painful side effect to the coffee giant: traffic jams at the pickup counter.

A Seattle virtual currency provider is embedding its service in Starbucks' popular mobile app.

The potential user base is huge. Tencent Holdings has 846 million global monthly active-user WeChat accounts, and more than 300 million have linked bank cards.

The company hopes to build off of its successful mobile app by adding new ordering technology. A massive international expansion of its store footprint is also in the works.

As Starbucks prepares to transition its top executives into new roles, it helps to look back on its history in mobile payments and examine how its management structure helped this plan. Here are a few of the key decisions the company made.

Investors initially jeered Howard Schultz's decision to step down as Starbucks' CEO, though the famed mobile strategy that's helped spur the coffee chain's high performance over the past couple of years doesn't necessarily require the company's founder to be in its biggest office.

Howard Schultz, who built the coffee empire over the past three decades and served two separate stints as CEO, will step down next year, handing the reins to technology veteran Kevin Johnson.

Typically merchants post signs at EMV terminals to tell their customers how they work, or that they should keep swiping. Starbucks is taking a more forward-thinking approach by treating EMV frustration as a mobile marketing opportunity.

More than two years after Apple Pay made its debut, less than 20% of U.S. shoppers are routinely using their smartphones for mobile payments — but millennials are bucking that trend a bit.

Stores are realizing that they don't want to duplicate Starbucks' success.

Mobile technology is radically changing the way people hail taxis, book lodging, consume entertainment and find prospective dates, but the same magic isn’t happening with how people spend money.