Starbucks recently began offering an "on-the-go" service called Starbucks Pickup in which it leaned on mobile ordering to appeal to customers who wanted a quick experience. This started around November of 2019, and was quickly accelerated once the pandemic gained much traction in early 2020. The primary driver, initially, was an increasingly digital world - people use their phones for absolutely everything, so why not place an order for Starbucks in advance so you can pick it up quickly instead of waiting in line. The primary driver then shifted to the pandemic, as the retail business shifted massively to meet local demands for social distancing and building occupancy limits.

Anyone who enjoyed Starbucks, but didn't want to wait in their exceedingly long lines, or was maybe even a little nervous about standing inside a building during the height of the pandemic, was feeling the pain of not being able to have a quick Starbucks experience. Starbucks was potentially missing out on a large share of the market because of the name they had made for themselves as a place to go to have a coffee and a small breakfast while sitting inside and relaxing in the morning. The main gap was the quick experience - with Starbucks' popularity, there was almost no possible way to get in, and get out. They addressed this with mobile pickup.

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