Starbucks is bringing in some new technology to help its cafes stay on top of incoming orders.
The Seattle-based coffee giant confirmed that it is licensing software from a company called Empower Delivery and hiring Empower’s six engineers. Starbucks also recently hired Empower’s founder, restaurant veteran Meredith Sandland, as its new chief store development officer.
Founded in 2022, Empower is an order fulfillment system that takes in a restaurant’s orders from various channels and sequences them so that kitchens are not overwhelmed and customers receive accurate quote times. It got its start at ClusterTruck, a ghost kitchen operation in Indianapolis.
In a LinkedIn post last week, Sandland wrote that Starbucks will use Empower to help manage order fulfillment, improving speed for in-store and drive-thru customers and ensuring that people who order on the app get their beverages on time.
It is part of CEO Brian Niccol’s goal to get customers their drinks in four minutes or less as the chain looks to turn around slumping sales.
Niccol has identified mobile orders in particular as a challenge for Starbucks' operations. During busy periods, app orders tend to create backups and overwhelm workers, in part because Starbucks did not have a way to sequence those orders.
During Starbucks’ investor day earlier this month, Niccol said the chain is working to “bring order to mobile orders,” so that “people show up when their drink shows up and vice versa.” He also said Sandland will play a leading role in “[managing] this algorithm of mobile order, drive-thru, in-store experiences.”
Niccol and Sandland previously worked together at Taco Bell, where Niccol was CMO, president and then CEO and Sandland was chief development officer.
Coordinating incoming orders is a major piece of Niccol’s broader plan to make Starbucks’ cafes calmer and more inviting, returning the chain to its roots as a “third place” where people want to spend time.
Under Niccol, the chain has reinstituted the practice of baristas writing customers’ names on cups, for instance, and now offers free refills to in-store customers. It’s also redesigning its shops with more comfortable seating, power outlets and a separation between the in-store and mobile pickup areas.
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