Coffee giant Starbucks expands mobile ordering

Coffee giant Starbucks Corp said it was expanding its mobile ordering service to Colorado and several other states after trial runs in its Pacific Northwest home turf.

As of Tuesday, the mobile service was available across 26 states and at about half of all US locations where Seattle-based Starbucks operates, USA Today reported.

The service is currently being offered at participating locations but only via the iPhone. This likely to be expand to all Starbucks stores in the US, Canada and the UK by year's end, with an Android version of the app expected soon.

Customers can place orders and pay for an item using an app called Mobile Order & Pay and then pick up the order at the store, bypassing the usual waiting line.

Lengthy waiting times had become more of a problem with the increasing complexity of Starbucks' menu with pastries and lunch options.

The company would also soon start testing a delivery feature in Seattle and New York City's Empire State Building.

According to the Seattle coffee giant, it planned to deploy the mobile order system in the rest of its company-owned stores in the US later this year.

With the latest expansion, an additional 3,400 stores in 21 states, from Texas to Wyoming and Arizona to South Carolina, now offered the service as did stores in Southern and Central California.

Mobile ordering and pay was a key initiative for Starbucks as the company sought to attract more customers into using its app and joining its reward program, whose members tended to spend more at its cafes and visit more often.