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Retail Top 100 2012, No. 26: Starbucks

December 23, 2012

Starbucks marked its 40th year in business with the rollout of a new logo and a mobile payment app that has become the early standard for m-commerce success by demonstrating that customers will adopt mobile payments at the point of sale. Eschewing fancy tech for relatively pedestrian barcodes, the Starbucks app operates with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of utility — two qualities that watchers agree are essential to supplanting the use of cash and cards. Introduced in January 2011, the app racked up an impressive three million transactions in its first three months. Additionally, by making its mobile payments closed-loop and keeping the transactions on its own systems, Starbucks bypassed the complicating step of partnering with a carrier or card brand. Starbucks was also an investor favorite in 2011, delivering a 35 percent year-to-date gain in December despite spiraling coffee prices worldwide.

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