Everybody knows Starbucks as the place to go for a daily (or multiple times per day) caffeine fix. The coffee chain has come to dominate the American coffee shop market. Not merely a coffee innovator, Starbucks has created a mobile app that is a truly useful resource for the millions of customers who frequent their storefronts.
The Starbucks mobile app achieves a difficult goal -- uniting the in-store and online experiences to create a more omni-channel approach to brand experience and communication. The primary function of the app is to allow users to order and pay through the app, enabling them to skip the line at their local store and pick up their order, which will already be waiting for them when they arrive.
Ordering through the app is a snap. Selecting “Order” from the navigation -- a minimalist typographical menu that runs along the top of the screen -- takes users directly to a menu, where featured drinks and snacks are populated. Users can browse by drink type (espresso drinks, iced tea, etc.) or select from previous orders or items that have been saved as favorites. The selection process is highly visual, and each item is accompanied by a photograph. All the same customizations a user would want to make in-store are also available through the app, so users can request low fat milk, add a shot of espresso, and add or remove toppings.
All of the user’s history is saved in the app, making reordering simple. The ability to pay with the app -- either ahead of time, or in-store -- helps make the Starbucks app indispensable for coffee-lovers. The app also uses haptic feedback (in the form of a short vibration) when the user fills out a form field incorrectly or doesn’t provide a piece of information that’s required.
Starbucks is a clean app design in the E-commerce & Retail and Food & Beverage industries.
