Prior to this week, it was a tragedy that Starbucks customers couldn’t use their iPhones to buy coffee from the drive-thru lane. Limited barcode scanning technology had restricted iPhone buyers to going into the store to use the app.
Fortunately, however, that issue has been resolved. Earlier this week Starbucks deployed a new barcode scanner that can be handed to the customer to complete the transaction. (Starbucks employees are expressly forbidden from handling customers’ iPhones.
“We needed a scanner that would still provide a smooth experience when the weather acts up and at night when it’s harder to see, and one that you could comfortably reach from various car heights,” the company explains in a blog post.
Starbucks’ app for iOS is one of the most popular payment-enabled platforms in the App Store, review data show.
