Starbucks’s latest iPhone app update lets customers in Portland, Oregon order and pay for their beverages right on their smartphone.
Portland customers will now see a new “order” button in their Starbucks iPhone app. Hitting it will transmit their order to the nearest barista, while simultaneously processing payment for the drink and estimating a pickup time.
Starbucks said the new payment system will roll out to more cities and Android phones in the “coming months.”
The update, which lets users bypass Starbucks’ register lines, marks the first phase of the company’s ambitious plan to eliminate those lines completely. Executives say mobile ordering could open up even faster ways to get coffee out of the door.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz recently said the company would begin experimenting with deliveries of hot coffee as early as 2015, CNN reports. “That’s our version of e-commerce on steroids,” Schultz said during an October earnings call.
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