PayPal + Jamba Juice - The 2013 Order Ahead Pioneer

In January 2013, long before mobile order-ahead became a standard feature in coffee chains and quick-service restaurants, PayPal partnered with Jamba Juice to test a new concept: letting customers order and pay in advance from their smartphones, then pick up their drinks without waiting in line.

This pilot, run out of a Jamba Juice in Emeryville, California, was one of the earliest examples of combining mobile payments, menu browsing, and scheduled pickup in a single consumer app.

At the time, most mobile apps in retail were focused on loyalty programs or store locators. Paying for your order ahead of time—and doing it through a payment service like PayPal—was groundbreaking.

The PayPal iOS app integrated:

• Menu browsing
• Size and add-on selection
• Pickup time scheduling
• Instant payment from your PayPal balance or linked accounts

It meant that busy customers could avoid lines during lunch rush or post-gym smoothie runs, an experience that we now take for granted.

• Menu Integration
  Full Jamba Juice menu inside the PayPal app, complete with sizes, extras, and pricing.

• Pickup Scheduling
  Choose your drink, select a pickup time, and skip the wait.

• Seamless Payment
  Pay instantly through PayPal without handing over a card or cash.

• Location-Based Check-In
  The app recognized when you were at the store, helping staff match orders to customers quickly.

1. Open the PayPal App – Navigate to the “Order Ahead” section.
2. Select Jamba Juice – Choose the Emeryville pilot location.
3. Customize Your Order – Pick a smoothie, add boosts, select size.
4. Schedule Pickup – Choose an available time slot.
5. Pay in-App – Complete the transaction instantly.
6. Skip the Line – Arrive at your chosen time and pick up your ready-made drink.

While PayPal never released the exact source for the Jamba Juice integration, similar “Order Ahead” demos on its PayPalLabs GitHub showed:

• Merchant Menu APIs for pulling real-time product listings
• Order and Payment APIs for transaction processing
• Check-In API for location-based order matching
• Magento App Extensions for merchants wanting the same functionality

This experiment foreshadowed the mass adoption of mobile ordering:

• Starbucks would roll out its own Mobile Order & Pay in 2014.
• Olo and other ordering platforms would power hundreds of brands.
• The “order ahead” concept would become an industry standard in QSR and coffee chains.

PayPal’s Jamba Juice pilot proved the viability of:

• Consumer willingness to prepay before pickup
• Integrating payments directly into the ordering flow
• Speeding up service during peak hours without adding staff

Although limited in scope, the pilot influenced how mobile wallets and payment platforms thought about value beyond transactions—embedding payments directly into the shopping journey.

Today, whether it’s grabbing coffee, lunch, or groceries, the DNA of PayPal’s 2013 Jamba Juice pilot is visible in every “skip the line” experience we use.

The PayPal × Jamba Juice order-ahead pilot might not have had the massive scale of Starbucks’ later rollout, but it was a genuine first mover in blending mobile payments with in-app ordering.

For tech historians and retail innovators, it’s a perfect case study in how small pilots can shape the future of an entire industry.

📦 Archived press release and screenshot available via Wayback Machine and PayPalLabs archives.