2 min read- Starbucks is launching scheduled ordering in North America on May 11 for stores with Mobile Order & Pay.
- Customers will be able to choose a pickup window up to one hour in advance through the app.
- The new feature is designed to make ordering ahead more convenient and better timed.
Ordering ahead at Starbucks is one of life’s great little luxuries, and probably one of the main reasons I keep choosing it when I need coffee on the go. In theory, it’s in-app perfection. In practice, though? The occasional mess.
Just the other day, I ordered on the app a few minutes before leaving, assuming I had timed it beautifully, only to arrive and find my local store completely overtaken by a mob of after-school kids ordering every açaí refresher variation known to man. In a rush, I ended up having to get a refund and leave without my precious venti iced coffee. So the idea of Starbucks letting people schedule orders ahead of time? That actually sounds useful.
Starting May 11, Starbucks is rolling out scheduled ordering across North America in stores where Mobile Order & Pay is available. Instead of placing an order for immediate pickup, customers will now be able to choose a pickup time up to one hour in advance.
The feature is meant for anyone trying to make their coffee run work with the rest of their day, instead of the other way around. After building your order in the app, you’ll be able to choose a pickup time during checkout, select from available five-minute windows, and place the order for later instead of ASAP.
So rather than tapping in an order and crossing your fingers, you can theoretically time your drink to meet you when you actually need it.
According to Starbucks, those pickup windows are based on real-time store capacity and are managed through the company’s order-queuing system, which is supposed to balance cafe, drive-thru, and mobile traffic. In other words, the app is trying to be a little smarter about when your drink should be made instead of just throwing it into the queue and hoping for the best.
That all sounds good on paper, and honestly, it will probably be a real upgrade for regular mobile-order customers. The big question, of course, is how cleanly it works in actual stores. Will your drink really be made at the right time? Will it still be sitting there untouched when you arrive? Will someone else accidentally grab your cold brew because every venti iced drink in the pickup area looks vaguely identical? That part remains to be seen.
Still, if any chain is going to make this kind of feature work, Starbucks feels like the obvious candidate. The company is already pretty locked in when it comes to app-based ordering, and this seems like a natural next step for people who want their coffee to be ready when they actually are.