Concur Lets Starbucks Buyers Expense Purchases, Receive Rewards

Starbucks is often mecca for the business crowd, fueling operations and housing out-of-office meetings. Now, the coffee chain will aid businesses that must expense all of those mid-morning caffeine boosts, and extend its reward system to those customers, too.

The company is partnering with spend management solutions provider Concur, which announced Thursday (Feb. 19) the release of a new e-receipt solution in the Concur App Center for Starbucks customers who need to expense their purchases.

According to Concur, while users will now be able to automatically upload their Starbucks receipts to the expense reporting system, purchasers were also now be able to earn My Starbucks Rewards Stars for those business-related buys.

According to Concur, data from its more than 27 million users shows Starbucks to be the most commonly expensed restaurant as well as the most popular location for non-office meetings. “Our data shows Concur users hold more than 10,000 meetings a month at Starbucks,” Concur Chief Product Officer Barry Padgett said. “This feature allows them to take advantage of easy expensing while paying at Starbucks, plus they’ll see their transactions appear in Concur mobile app in near real time.”

Previously, customers using the Starbucks Card and mobile apps to pay for purchases could earn rewards for those buys if they were expensing them through Concur, but it was more cumbersome.

Starbucks first launched its nationwide mobile payment program in 2011, allowing customers to pay with their smartphones as the chain focused on using mobile technology to draw in customers in the coming years. Concur is now integrating into the success of Starbucks’ mobile strategy with its own mobile expensing services.

Concur, a company with more than 20 years behind it, focuses on spending management with its Concur App Center and currently serves more than 30,000 companies, it says. The Concur App Center was launched in 2013.