Starbucks has the second most used mobile payment app for POS transactions
- eMarketer reported that the Starbucks app accounts for more payments than Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
- Apple Pay dominates with 43.9 million users.
Americans really love their coffee. About 62% of Americans drink coffee everyday while Starbucks is arguably America’s favorite coffee chain.
It’s not all that surprising then that 31.2 million people use the Starbucks mobile payments app to purchase their coffees, frappuccinos and Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
However, what is surprising is that Starbucks beat out Google Pay and Samsung Pay for more users for POS transactions. Starbucks had 6 million more users than Google Pay and 15 million more than Samsung Pay. Apple Pay edged out all three with 43.9 million users -- but this wasn’t always the case. Back in 2018, the Starbucks app had 23.4 million users while Apple Pay had 22 million. In 2019, Apple Pay overtook Starbucks with 30.3 million users -- up 38% from what eMarketer estimated the previous year.
Starbucks’ success might be attributed to the fact that its in-store mobile payments app is available on both iOS or Android, whereas Apple Pay and Samsung Pay users are restricted by the type of phone they have. Google Pay can be used on any Android device, but among all three, the iPhone has far more market penetration in the U.S.
Starbucks has shown that they are as much a financial services company as a coffee company. Through a strong API network and leveraging interaction data they have increased their market share through personalization.
Starbucks, through its intelligent API network has proven that it is not just about coffee. They are a financial services enterprise that is building its own eco-system of users.