Over 550 company owned Starbucks stores in the UK now accept contactless payments, making it faster and easier to buy a morning coffee. Starbucks, Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance and Visa Europe announced the roll-out today (Tuesday).

Starbucks follows Marks and Spencer, The Co-op, Post Office, Boots, McDonald's and other major national retailers in the move to contactless. For those retailers where speed is of the essence, accepting contactless payments is rapidly becoming a business imperative.

Ian Cranna, vice president of marketing for Starbucks UK, says: “With only around one in three of our customers now paying with cash, we recognise the importance and benefits of embracing new payment technologies at Starbucks. We are now able to provide our customers with the quickest and most convenient ways to pay, to speed up service and cut queue times. The roll out of contactless follows other payment innovations that we have implemented across our stores, including developing a bespoke mobile payment app.”

There are currently over 27 million Visa contactless cards issued in the UK and contactless payments are accepted at more than 250,000 terminals in the UK, including on London Buses, which have seen more than two million transactions since launching contactless payments in December 2012.

Share Story: