Starbucks saw a sizable jump in mobile transactions in the first quarter of this financial year, with mobile orders jumping from three percent to seven percent of all transactions.

The news comes amid general optimism for the brand’s mobile efforts. In addition to the figures relating to mobile orders and mobile payment, Starbucks is also introducing a chatbot ordering system as well.

“Starbucks is engaging more deeply – and more frequently – and expanding its base of loyal customers faster and more consistently today than ever before,” said Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks. “The trust and confidence our customers have in the Starbucks brand is fueling our flywheel and propelling our business forward in markets and channels all around the world.”

Mobile vanguard
While many brands and retailers have become aware of the increasing need to improve their mobile efforts in order to keep up with the new mobile world, coffee chains seem to be among the front of the pack.

Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks are the two that cast a long shadow over the competition, with both having robust mobile offerings in the form of mobile ordering, mobile payments, loyalty programs and other initiatives.

Now, Starbucks has released some data to justify the increased investment in mobile.

According to the brand’s quarterly earnings report, mobile orders made up seven percent of all transactions in the last quarter.

More impressively, the percentage of total transactions, whether ordered through mobile or not, that were completed with mobile payment jumped to 27 percent.

In addition to those numbers, Starbucks also spoke about its other digital investments, including the My Starbucks Barista app, a conversational mobile application that lets consumers order from a chatbot-style interface.

Headstart
Starbucks’ use of mobile has clearly paid off in the long run.

Over the next few years, as mobile devices only become more prevalent as the dominant way in which consumers interact with the world, expect those numbers, and numbers from Starbucks’ competitors, to continue to grow.

This growth will likely come along with Starbucks’ other continued efforts in the mobile world.

The aforementioned chatbot program is likely to drive sales due to the popularity of messaging services such as Facebook Messenger and its accompanying brand programs (see story).

Continuing the messaging trend, Starbucks has also integrated mobile payments into the messaging app WeChat, which has given them an edge in China, where the app is most popular (see story).

While Starbucks will likely see disproportionate amounts of growth compared to smaller coffee chains, do not discount the power of mobile to provide smaller brands the tools to compete with the larger ones.

“We are pleased with the record Q1 financial and operating results we announced today, particularly given that the results were delivered in the face of a challenging environment for restaurant retailers overall,” said Scott Maw, chief financial officer of Starbucks. “As always, credit for our success belongs to the more than 300,000 Starbucks partners around the world who proudly wear the green apron and who deliver an elevated Starbucks Experience to our customers now over 90 million times, each week.”