Starbucks continues massive expansion of wildly popular mobile ordering platform

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Starbucks' mobile order-ahead platform is branching out to new states. Mobile Order & Pay, Starbucks' order-ahead platform that was originally piloted in late 2014, is expanding to 21 more US states, meaning that the feature will be available in more than 4,000 Starbucks stores.

The feature is only available for iOS as of now, but the company plans to launch an Android version later this year. Starbucks introduced Mobile Order & Pay to the Pacific Northwest region in March, and the platform's continual expansion is an indicator that it's been a hit with consumers in the test markets.

Mobile Order & Pay is an integrated service in Starbucks' pre-existing app that allows customers to order coffee ahead of time and pick it up at a specific location. They make their purchases in the app, so they can skip the line when they walk in.

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Starbucks expects Mobile Order & Pay to "increase speed of service, drive incremental transactions and increase throughput" in its stores. This is because order details are printed on a sticker that can easily be attached to a coffee cup, cutting down the time of the checkout process. This improved operational process will enable baristas to make more orders in less time and could result in higher sales for Starbucks.

Many Starbucks customers likely favor convenience and therefore might adopt the app's order-ahead feature quickly. And, since these orders are processed through the app, mobile could take an even greater share of Starbucks sales. Currently, mobile represents 18% of US in-store Starbucks sales (see chart).

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