Starbucks announced expanded payment options for loyalty credit—but hold your double shot latte for the moment. The coffee café’s loyalty program is a crown jewel even though the Seattle barista has tinkered with it over the years. Currently, every dollar spent receives two Starbucks points, but that’s only if you pre-load your loyalty card or mobile app and use it to pay for a transaction.
Starting this fall in the U.S. and Canada, customers can bypass the pre-loaded Starbucks account and pay for a purchase directly with any credit or debit card, as well as PayPal. But the tradeoff is the loyalty credit will be just one point, rather than two. So while that’s still an increase over zero, most Starbucks loyalists will probably still opt for the pre-load arrangement and get the two point jolt.
The following Retail Touch Points article reports more on the topic:
As COVID-19 has accelerated the trend away from cash payments to mobile and other contactless methods, Starbucks and 7-Eleven have both expanded their mobile payment options.
Starbucks Reward members using the company’s mobile app will be able to earn rewards, which Starbucks calls stars, when they pay with cash, credit and debit cards or mobile wallets. Previously, only Reward members using the prepaid Starbucks Card were eligible to earn stars.
Members using these pre-loaded payments will continue to have an advantage, earning two stars for every dollar spent, as opposed to one star for every dollar spent when other payment methods are used.
“Our customers have shared with us that they would like more options to pay and earn Stars in the app as a Starbucks Rewards member, in addition to the Starbucks Card,” said Brady Brewer, Starbucks CMO in a statement.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group
