Starbucks officials detailed the upcoming rollout of the Square mobile payment system during the company’s annual Global Leadership Conference in Houston, as well as a number of other upcoming moves for the Seattle-based chain.
In a joint presentation with Square founder and chief executive officer Jack Dorsey, Starbucks’ chair, president and CEO Howard Schultz outlined plans for the mobile payment system rollout, which was first announced in August.
Starting in November, consumers can use Square to pay for their orders at Starbucks’ U.S. locations, and the company will enable digital tipping through both Square Wallet and the mobile payment app by the summer of 2013. Square also will process Starbucks’ credit and debit card transactions, which is expected to reduce the company’s payment processing costs.
The new mobile payment system also is integrated with Apple’s Passbook. From the Starbucks app, iPhone and iPod touch users can tap “add to Passbook” once, and swipe their Starbucks’ pass to pay. Whenever the customer enters a Starbucks store, the card will show on the device’s lock screen automatically, since Passbook is time and location enabled.
The partnership is expected to further expand use of mobile payment at Starbucks, which has seen more than 70 million mobile transactions since the chain launched its first app in January 2011.
Also during the conference, Starbucks announced that it will begin rolling out La Boulange bakery products to its company-operated stores in the U.S. (starting with San Francisco) in late spring 2013.