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n1 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Starbucks reported a “banner” quarter for its smartphone feature that lets customers order coffee and food ahead of time and skip the line in stores. In fact, the feature is doing so well that it’s clogging pick-up areas and forcing the company to consider revamping store layouts.

[...] Mobile ordering was a bright spot in the Seattle-based coffee giant’s earnings report. Starbucks posted Q1 2017 earnings of $0.52 per share, which met expectations, and $5.73 billion in quarterly revenue, which was up 7 percent year-over-year but missed estimates and sent shares down nearly 5 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Mobile Order & Pay (MOP), the company’s smartphone app feature that launched in 2015 and lets customers skip the line by ordering in advance, represented 7 percent of the company’s U.S. transactions in the most recent quarter. That’s up 3 percent the prior year and 1 percent from the previous quarter.

[...] There were 1,200 stores in the U.S. that saw more than 20 percent of transaction volume come from MOP during peak hours; that’s up from 600 stores in the prior quarter.

The significant uptick in usage is causing in-store congestion issues for MOP customers trying to pick up their order at hand-off stations. This problem not only affects customers who are picking up items, but also potential customers who may notice the in-store traffic and end up not purchasing anything, Johnson [Starbucks CEO] explained.

Source: GeekWire [geekwire.com]

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