The future of coffee is other people buying it for you, according to Starbucks

Why pay for your drink when someone else could do so?

(Getty Images

(Getty Images)

Last quarter, Starbucks made a record £4.5 million which equates to a whopping billion caramel frappuccinos.

Despite their tax avoidance scandal, the American coffee behemoth is enduringly popular. Whether a pumpkin spice latte or a frappuccino, Starbucks drinks are Instagram’s chain coffee shop beverages of choice - there are over 26 million pictures tagged with #starbucks.

In their latest earnings call with investors, Starbucks revealed that despite what Instagram might suggest, a significant proportion of Starbucks’ revenue actually comes from food sales and gift cards as well as drinks.

COO and President Kevin Johnson explained that he believes gift card sales are only going to continue increasing and that “social gifting is the next frontier,” Eater reports.

Last quarter, the company sold a record £1.7 billion in gift cards (and top-ups), which was a 15 per cent increase on their sales over the same Christmas period in 2015.

In the US, 40 per cent of all sales are made using a Starbucks gift card, which is more than any other coffee shop chain.

But it’s not just physical cards either - digital gift cards (Starbucks Card eGifts) are also on the up, with consumers sending them to each other through the app.

The app makes it incredibly easy for people to buy a Starbucks Card eGift as they don’t even have to go to the effort of visiting a shop, and this is something the company plans to make the most of.

What’s more, Starbucks’ app allows customers to place their order in advance, supposedly allowing people simply to stroll in and pick up their coffee. However, with so many of us doing so, the pre-ordered pick-up queues have now become longer than the original lines.

According to the company’s leaders, however, Starbucks is going to be bringing in new systems and counters to combat this problem and they’re even trialling a programme that would see customers receiving a text when their order is ready.

In other news to come out of the announcements, Starbucks has revealed they plan on increasing the proportion of their sales which come from food (currently 20 per cent) by developing their lunchtime menu.

So perhaps soon we’ll all be sending virtual gift cards, ordering in advance and paying for coffees with our phones too.