As a seasoned professional who has consulted for numerous retail and food service brands on their mobile strategies, I‘ve seen firsthand how transformative digital ordering can be. Mobile order and pay options provide unparalleled convenience for customers while driving incremental sales and loyalty for businesses.
Perhaps no other company has been more successful at mobile ordering than Starbucks. The coffee giant‘s industry-leading app has become ubiquitous among its customer base, allowing them to seamlessly place and pay for orders with just a few taps. By integrating rewards, customization, and omnichannel pickup options, Starbucks has turned its mobile order and pay platform into a significant competitive advantage.
However, as any regular Starbucks customer can attest, the "order ahead" feature isn‘t bulletproof. From time to time, you‘ll open the app only to find that mobile ordering is unavailable at your selected cafe. This can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you‘re in a time crunch and were counting on skipping the line.
So what‘s really going on behind the scenes when Starbucks shuts off mobile orders? As an expert who pores over the data and tracks the latest industry trends, I‘m here to provide some answers and context. Let‘s dive into the most common reasons that order ahead gets turned off and explore how Starbucks is working to improve the reliability of its mobile ordering experience.
Operational Challenges of Balancing Mobile and In-Store Orders
The most frequent culprit for why mobile ordering is paused at Starbucks locations is simply that stores become overwhelmed by the volume of orders coming in through the app. During peak hours, it‘s not uncommon for 60-80% of total orders to come from the app rather than in-store at busy urban cafes.
Starbucks baristas are often dealing with a constant influx of stickers printing out with mobile orders to prepare, on top of the customers waiting in physical line to place orders. All these orders flow into the same production queue. A high volume of mobile orders can significantly slow down the line and cause all orders to bottleneck.
According to Starbucks‘ Q1 FY22 earnings call, "Mobile Order & Pay made up 25% of total transactions in U.S. company-operated stores, up from 18% pre-pandemic." That‘s a huge jump in mobile orders in a short period that stores have had to adapt to.
Turning off mobile ordering is a quick lever that managers can pull to ease the pressure on staff and get the in-store line moving again. It‘s all about finding the right balance between the two order channels. Too many mobile orders coming in at once throws off that equilibrium.
Starbucks‘ traditional store layouts weren‘t necessarily designed for such a high volume of mobile order pickups. Many cafes have had to get creative with where to stage orders and how to optimize the path from barista to handoff plane. Without a dedicated space or staff for mobile orders, they can quickly pile up and cause confusion.
The Technical Side of Mobile Ordering at Starbucks
From a technical standpoint, Starbucks‘ mobile ordering system is an impressive feat of engineering. When a customer places an order via the app, that information is instantly transmitted to the store‘s point-of-sale (POS) system. Stickers print out with the order details for baristas to prepare the beverages and food items.
But like any technology, things can go wrong. Outages, bugs, and other tech issues can force stores to turn off mobile ordering until the problems are fixed. Maybe the POS integration is struggling to sync, causing orders to get lost. Or perhaps there‘s a glitch causing orders to print with incorrect or incomplete information.
Starbucks works with multiple tech vendors and partners to power various aspects of its digital platform. If one of those providers has an outage (e.g. the payment processor), it can bring down mobile ordering as well until it‘s resolved.
The company also has to be mindful of potential security vulnerabilities that could compromise customer data. Temporarily pausing mobile ordering capabilities may be a necessary precaution if active threats or breaches are detected.
While these total tech meltdowns are fairly rare, even small scale issues can have a big impact when you‘re operating approximately 15,500 stores in the U.S. alone as Starbucks does.
Product Shortages and Outages
It‘s a real headache for customers to place a mobile order only to arrive and find out that the store is out of a key ingredient or menu item. To avoid this type of friction, Starbucks stores will often shut off mobile ordering if they‘re running low on high-demand items.
For example, if a store is running precariously low on oat milk or is totally out of breakfast sandwiches, it‘s better to pause mobile orders for those items than to accept orders that can‘t actually be fulfilled. The same logic applies to temporary shortages of cups, lids, straws, or other essential supplies.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many stores experienced serious supply chain disruptions that limited the availability of many core menu items. In these cases, it made sense to restrict mobile orders until stock levels stabilized.
Product shortages tend to be highly localized and store-specific. But there are times when Starbucks issues system-wide holds on mobile ordering for certain items. This happened in June 2022 when the chain temporarily turned off mobile ordering for Mango Dragonfruit Refreshers due to quality control issues with the fruit inclusions.
Comparing Mobile Ordering Across Coffee Chains
Of course, Starbucks isn‘t the only coffee chain to offer mobile ordering. Several of its closest competitors have rolled out their own digital ordering platforms in a bid to meet changing customer expectations. Here‘s a quick comparison of the mobile ordering capabilities of some top coffee brands:
| Chain | Mobile Order & Pay | Curbside Pickup | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starbucks | Yes | Select Stores | Yes |
| Dunkin‘ | Yes | Select Stores | Yes |
| Peet‘s Coffee | Yes | No | Yes |
| Caribou Coffee | Yes | Select Stores | No |
| Dutch Bros | Yes | All Stores | No |
| Tim Hortons | Yes | No | Yes |
As you can see, mobile ordering has become table stakes for national coffee chains. But the extent of the features and pickup options varies quite a bit. Starbucks and Dunkin‘ are leading the pack in terms of curbside pickup availability, while others like Dutch Bros focus solely on in-store and drive-thru pickup.
Interestingly, most of these chains outsource delivery orders to third-party platforms like Uber Eats and DoorDash rather than fulfilling them via their own apps and staff. Starbucks is unique in offering its own delivery service at select stores.
No matter how robust the underlying technology is, every brand is susceptible to the same operational challenges that Starbucks faces when demand outstrips capacity for mobile orders. Dunkin‘ franchisees have complained of similar issues with bottlenecks and frustrated customers during peak hours.
As digital orders continue to make up a larger share of business, coffee chains will have to keep iterating on their processes, store layouts, and training to find the right balance. Some have already started adding dedicated prep lines, staging areas, and staffing for mobile orders to better handle the influx.
The Future of Mobile Ordering at Starbucks
Despite the occasional growing pains, mobile ordering remains core to Starbucks‘ business strategy and continues to post impressive numbers. In Q2 FY22, the company reported that its Starbucks Rewards loyalty program grew 17% year-over-year to 26.7 million active members. This is the customer base that drives the majority of mobile order and pay transactions.
Looking ahead, Starbucks is making sizable investments in technology, store design, and process improvement to optimize for an increasingly digital-first customer base. This includes:
- Opening new Starbucks Pickup stores that prioritize mobile order efficiency with limited seating and a layout built around quick handoff. As of Q2 FY22, there were 38 of these format stores open in the U.S.
- Expanding drive-thru and curbside pickup options for mobile orders. More than 50% of U.S. company-operated stores now have drive-thrus.
- Implementing handheld POS devices to bust lines and improve ordering efficiency. These allow customers to place in-store orders with staff from anywhere in the cafe.
- Investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning to better forecast demand, predict wait times, and automate inventory management. These capabilities will help stores make real-time decisions like when to turn mobile ordering on/off.
- Reimagining store layouts and back-of-house operations to create more space for mobile order pickup and reduce congestion. Expect to see separate prep areas and dedicated staffing for mobile orders.
Starbucks is also testing out some intriguing innovations abroad that could eventually make their way to the U.S. For instance, in China, the company has opened a series of "Starbucks Now" stores that essentially function as walk-up counters for picking up mobile orders placed via the app. Taking the Starbucks Pickup concept to the next level, these stores have no physical ordering queue at all.
While the short-term focus is on fortifying the core mobile ordering experience and mitigating capacity constraints, I anticipate that Starbucks will continue to push the envelope on frictionless digital experiences over the next 5-10 years. The future could bring everything from gamification (e.g. in-app challenges and AR integrations) to even more predictive features (e.g. using location services and order history to suggest favorite orders when near a store).
As long as the underlying infrastructure and store operations keep pace, the possibilities for personalizing and streamlining the mobile ordering experience are truly exciting. I have no doubt that Starbucks will remain at the vanguard of this space.
The Bottom Line for Customers
Mobile ordering at Starbucks has revolutionized the way that millions of customers get their daily coffee fix. When the system is firing on all cylinders, it‘s magical – saving time, eliminating friction, and letting you skip the line. But as with any relatively new technology, there are bound to be some hiccups along the way.
If you find that mobile ordering is turned off at your go-to Starbucks from time to time, know that it‘s likely due to very real constraints around staffing, capacity, and resources. A store manager‘s first priority is to the customers who are physically waiting in line. Pausing digital orders is sometimes the only way to catch up and reset.
The good news is that Starbucks is acutely aware of these pain points and is investing heavily in solutions to improve the mobile ordering experience from both a customer and barista perspective. In the meantime, here are a few tips that can help make things smoother:
- Check the app before leaving to make sure mobile ordering is turned on at your store.
- Pay attention to the estimated wait time for your order, especially during peak hours. Plan accordingly and be patient.
- If you‘re in a rush, consider going to a different nearby Starbucks that has a shorter wait.
- Don‘t hesitate to ask a barista for an update on your order status if it‘s not ready when expected.
- Remember that behind the scenes, the staff is working hard to manage a complex system and fulfill a huge volume of orders. A little kindness goes a long way!
At the end of the day, the future of mobile ordering at Starbucks is brighter than ever. With each new store opening and tech rollout, the company is getting closer to delivering a truly seamless digital experience at scale. Yes, there will be the occasional outage or delay, but those are just small speed bumps on the road to revolutionizing how we get our caffeine.
As Starbucks likes to say, onward!
