11 Ingredients in Starbucks' Bold Mobile-Payments Blend

March 28, 2013 8:56 PM

An attendee reaches for a cup of coffee at Starbucks Corp.'s 400,000 square foot Leadership Lab in the George R. Brown Convention Center during the company's Global Leadership Conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Oct., 4, 2012. Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said his company plans to add 1,000 stores in the U.S. in the next five years. Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

(Image: Bloomberg News)

A Starbucks Corp., sign is displayed outside a coffee shop in London, U.K., on Thursday, Dec, 1, 2011. Starbucks Corp., the world's largest coffee-shop operator, plans to add 200 more drive-through stores across the U.K. in an expansion that will create 5,000 jobs. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Store by Store

Starbucks' early moves in mobile payments were tentative. It worked with mFoundry Inc. to test an iPhone-only mobile payment system in just 16 stores back in 2009. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Rain falls on the Target Corp. logo displayed outside of a store in Peru, Illinois, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Target Corp. led U.S. retailers to the biggest monthly same-store sales gain in more than a year as shoppers snapped up discounted merchandise chains were clearing out after the holidays. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Getting On Target

By April 2010, Starbucks tweaked its app's technology to make it work in a thousand locations. The rapid expansion took advantage of the scanners in place at Target stores, many of which have Starbucks locations inside. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Customers sit inside a Starbucks Corp. outlet in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. China's consumer prices rose 2 percent in January from a year earlier while the producer-price index dropped 1.6 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Ringing Up Rewards

In May 2010, Starbucks added a loyalty feature to its payment app, allowing users to track the rewards points they earn through their coffee habit. (Image: Bloomberg News)

A barista prepares a coffee drink at a Starbucks Corp. store in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Starbucks Corp., the world's biggest coffee-shop chain, will start selling its Via instant coffee in the greater China region, which it forecast will be its biggest growth market in two years. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

Winning Formula

Even in the app's early months, Starbucks considered it a success. App users spent less time at the register because they could use the app to top up their Starbucks card accounts while standing in line. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Betting on Blackberry

After the iPhone, Starbucks made its app available to Blackberry users, bucking the conventional wisdom of developing for Android next. Starbucks' decision to prioritize Blackberry stemmed from its knowledge that many coffee buyers visit its stores on their way to work with their company-issued Blackberrys in hand. (Image: ShutterStock)

The new Apple Inc. iPhone 5 is displayed for a photograph during an event in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone 5 in an overhaul aimed at widening its lead over Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc. in the $219.1 billion smartphone market. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Apple Takes Notice

By early 2011, Starbucks' success was too much for even Apple to ignore. Apple began featuring the Starbucks app in its television advertising. (Image: Bloomberg News)

Coffee Klatch

As Starbucks' mobile payment app grew in popularity, it inspired an odd experiment: customer Jonathan Stark chose to share his card account online, allowing anyone to fund and spend from it. Starbucks was initially supportive, but changed its mind within a month and closed Stark's account.

Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks Corp., speaks during a media event in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. Starbucks is planning a bigger push into smaller cities in China as the world's largest coffee-shop operator triples stores in the country that will become its second-biggest market by 2014. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Howard Schultz

Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

Square Deal

Starbucks made a $25 million investment in Square in 2012, a move that also placed Starbucks chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz on Square's board. Starbucks agreed to use Square for processing but it did not agree to use Square's flagship product, a mobile card reader. (Image: Bloomberg News)

A customer examines an Apple Inc. iPhone 5 during a launch event organized by SK Telecom Co. in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. The iPhone 5 went on sale in South Korea today. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

More and More Mobile

Starbucks later agreed to list all of its 7,000 stores in the Square directory and accept purchases from the Square Wallet. Starbucks also updated its own app to work with Apple's Passbook wallet, allowing the mobile Starbucks card to sense when a customer walks into a favorite store. (Image: Bloomberg News)

More than Coffee

At the start of this year, Starbucks began selling Square's readers in its stores. Starbucks still does not use the readers to accept payments.

Hand with tea bag

Burke/Triolo Productions/Getty Images/Brand X

Tea Time

In March, Starbucks announced plans to expand its loyalty and payment programs across its brands. This integration allows customers to use the Starbucks mobile app to make purchases in Teavana stores. (Image: ThinkStock)