Starbucks f-commerce + m-commerce = New Gold Standard

Starbucks is the latest brand to open up an f-commerce store (Facebook e-commerce), and it’s slick; offering perhaps the best online purchasing experience on Facebook to date, and with a mobile commerce dimension.

Fully integrated into Facebook (not merely a storefront), users can reload their (virtual) Starbucks mobile card with a payment card in order to pay for drinks with their cell phone – or load cash onto the Starbucks plastic payment card. Users will also be able to surprise their Facebook friends by reloading their cards.

What’s particularly slick is the shopping cart checkout experience, which is visually appealing with an elegant  interactive interface, better than that on the main Starbucks site.  Of course, it helps that the Starbucks f-commerce wall app is only selling one thing, thereby sidestepping storefront design issues that f-commerce designers have yet to crack.  But nevertheless, designers working on f-commerce briefs now have a new gold standard to work from.

With Facebook expected to add Foursquare busting geo-location services imminently, Starbucks is uniquely placed to explore the combined opportunities of m-commerce with f-commerce.