From coffee-making robots to AI-powered coffee blenders, the first few weeks of 2025 have been packed with exciting, tech-focused coffee shop trends.
And, given some of the tech-focused moves we’ve seen our favorite brands making…
We’re predicting big things from coffee shops throughout the rest of this year.
Here are Craver’s top five predictions for the coffee shop technology trends we’ll be seeing more of in 2025.
Trend 1 — Membership and Subscription Programs for Coffee Shops
In 2023, the World Coffee Portal reported that 1/3 of customers would prefer paying for a subscription vs. per visit. In 2024, Blank Street Coffee’s four-month-old membership service reached (an almost unbelievable) 5,000 members.
And now, in 2025, even the smallest local coffee shops are jumping on the memberships and subscriptions train, because the past few years have shown us they work.
Take Springfield Wakery, for example.
The small, Illinois coffee shop launched their first-ever subscription service this year, announcing the big news in an Instagram post on January 8th.
The (aptly named) “Wakery Coffee Subscription” is a simple yet effective pre-pay subscription model, hosted on the coffee shop’s Square website. To subscribe, all you have to do is pick the number of coffees you’d like to pre-pay for, add the subscription to your cart, check out like you would with any other online product, and voilà! You’re officially a Wakery Coffee subscriber.
Source: The Wakery
And, to make the subscription even more worth it, The Wakery has implemented a “buy more, save more” pricing system; a feature they explained on Instagram as a true win-win.
Craver predicts that more coffee shops will try out a membership or subscription model in 2025, especially smaller coffee shops that feel empowered by simple, easy-to-use subscription models like The Wakery’s.
Want to launch a coffee shop subscription in 2025? See how Craver can help.
Trend 2 — Digital Menu Boards for Coffee Shops
Did you know that digital menu boards can increase sales by up to 38%?
They’ve also been shown to reduce perceived wait time by 35%+, increase margin-per-order by 3%+, and amplify employee productivity by 20%.
And, if that doesn’t sell you digital menu boards’ potential… maybe Socotra Coffee House will.
The Yemeni coffee shop opened in August 2023, an Ann Arbor-based business “[honoring] the cultural traditions of Yemen by bringing them to a fresh new audience.” But, despite the brand’s focus on “traditional” coffee and pastries, co-founder Sam Al Rabeei knew the shop needed a more modern touch… so he DIY’d his own digital menu boards.
“I just wanted something basic, something that people can see and is very neat,” said Al Rabeei. “I could have hired a company to do the signage and stuff, but it's very simple — you can use an HDMI or [USB to connect to the TV], then you just literally turn it on.”
Fast forward to 2024, and Socotra Coffee House has continued its steady growth trajectory, connecting with the local community through partnerships, events, and online appearances.
With coffee shop owners like Al Rabeei demonstrating that in-house tech doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated, Craver predicts that more coffee shops will adopt simple, service-improving digital signage and menu boards in 2025.
Trend 3 — Delivery Integrations for Coffee Shops
In March 2024, DoorDash surveyed over 1,500 US consumers for their annual “Online Ordering Trends” report, and the results were way more delivery-heavy than you might expect this far post-pandemic.
According to DoorDash’s report, 7 in 10 respondents had ordered food delivery over the past month, with 33% saying their delivery habits had actually increased compared to the prior year.
Combine those figures with the 3 in 10 respondents naming third-party apps as their go-to for delivery, and it’s obvious why coffee shops are prioritizing better delivery integrations — especially when brands like Caffè Nero are proving that it works.
In Q1 2024, Caffè Nero reported a record-breaking 28% increase in delivery sales across UK markets, with the brand’s international stores reaching sales of 80M USD. And, by the time Q3 2024 rolled around, delivery had reached 2% of Caffè Nero’s total sales.
“I’m hugely encouraged by the group’s performance during the last financial year,” said Caffè Nero Founder and Group CEO, Gerry Ford. “We have returned to pre-[COVID] levels plus a bit more.”
Because of the increasing demand for at-home delivery — and the proof that delivery can and does ramp up sales — Craver predicts more coffee shop owners and operators will expand their delivery tech integrations in 2025.
Delivery integrations get a lot easier when you start with a custom-branded mobile app.
Trend 4 — Better In-App Personalization for Coffee Shops
Achieving personalization levels customers expect can be difficult, especially since competing third-party apps have a data-driven upper hand.
While Uber Eats and DoorDash have massive amounts of data and predictive insights to guide their innovative personalization efforts, local coffee shop owners have to tackle personalization improvements a little more creatively (AKA without billions of people’s worth of data).
That doesn’t mean it’s “impossible,” though — just look at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Since the revamped “Dunkin’ Rewards” program rolled out in 2022, the Dunkin’ App has skyrocketed in popularity, reaching over 30 million active users and launching a whole new range of personalized features.
So, did Dunkin’ have Uber Eats-level data guiding their new personalization?
Nope. They just asked what people wanted.
“When we set out to improve DD Perks, we asked our members what they wanted to see in a new program,” said Scott Murphy, Dunkin’ President and Head of Beverage-Snack. “They told us three things: flexibility, variety, and recognition, [and] we did just that.”
New personalization features delivered on all three promises, including:
- Expanded rewards options, offering flexibility in how you redeem your points
- Saved favorite orders, showing Dunkin’ recognized your go-to products
- Boosted Status and badges, adding variety to how you get points
While first-party apps might not be able to “compete” with the amount of data third-party apps have access to, they can level up their personalization through Dunkin’-level communication with their audience — something Craver predicts to see much more of in 2025.
Source: Dunkin' Rewards
Trend 5 — More Accurate Mobile Order Pickup Times for Coffee Shops
According to a recent CivicScience survey, 75% of consumers expect to get their quick-service food and drink orders in five minutes or less. Combine that need for speed with rising inaccuracies in mobile order estimates and extended in-store wait times, and it’s no surprise that “timing” has skyrocketed in importance.
That’s why we’re seeing more and more coffee shop owners and operators share new plans and strategies to improve all things “timing” — including mega-brands like Starbucks.
In December last year, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol shared that the brand’s updated 5-year goals included multiple timing-related improvements, most notably a revamp of the mobile order pickup process.
Niccol explained that the brand’s main focus for improving mobile order pickup is accuracy, with plans to give customers a more specific in-app estimate of when their order will be ready.
“Today [we give you] an estimate, ‘hey, it’ll be ready in three to five minutes,’” Niccol said. “In the future, what’ll happen is we’ll be like, ‘Rebecca, your drink will be ready at nine,’ instead of it just being made, sitting on the counter [and] waiting for people to come.”
With increasing consumer demand for fast, “wait-free” service, Craver predicts that more coffee shop owners and operators will follow Starbucks’ lead in 2025, reworking their mobile apps to deliver more accurate service estimates.
Give your customers the mobile ordering experience they deserve with a Craver app.
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