Starbucks has launched its mobile payment app in Germany and France to enable its customers to make payments using a mobile version of their Starbucks card.
The app is the same one which operates in the US and UK and it works in the same way
Starbucks drops Square and deepens app strategy
globally.
The company also announced quietly before Christmas that it and Square are going their separate ways in the ongoing battle for how to order and pay for items using smartphones.
According to a source, Square’s Wallet app stopped working at Starbucks last week, ahead of Square’s plan to stop supporting the app early in 2015. In an email to users, Square said it is discontinuing Wallet to transition to Square Order, a new app to let consumers place orders in advance of showing up at stores.
Starbucks won’t accept payments from the new Square app because it is testing its own app to allow users to pre-order drinks before arriving in shops, building on its loyalty program and its own mobile payment app.
Square unveiled in May 2014 that it was going to discontinue Wallet eventually in exchange for Order, but it had continued to support Wallet even after pulling the app from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, the source points out.
Starbucks and Square teamed up in late 2012 to provide consumers with the option of paying for food and drinks using a barcode within Square Wallet. It never took off as a way to pay for items in Starbucks, due in part to the popularity of the coffee retailer’s own app that accounts for the bulk of mobile payments at its stores.
Square and Starbucks are not totally splitting up, the source adds. Square has said it still processes debit and credit card payments at 7,000 of the coffee chain’s US stores.
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