Starbucks Coffee Social Service brings coffee to TA. What does Starka play with the social experience version?

Some netizens said earlier: Starbucks is not a coffee company, but a data company.

Why is Starbucks a data company?

Let's review what "coffee social" services Starbucks has launched so far this year.

WeChat Mini Programs launched its China Coffee Express ™service on March 16, 2011. at the same time, Starbucks also launched two new functions, "helping TA Belt" and "Coffee Social experience Edition", and launched in WeChat Mini Programs. The two major service functions are based on Starbucks' insight into the social attributes of the Wechat ecology. Through the coffee number, Starbucks has created a new coffee circle.

On May 10, 2021, Starbucks launched a new feature called Starka, which is based on the habits and needs of current users for digital social networking.

Starbucks is a new coffee social front for Starbucks. When using this function, you can set up your favorite drinks according to your own habits, share your coffee views and generate your own posters. Others can also order the same drink according to the posters of friends or celebrities.

In addition, "Starka" can also be combined with the "help TA belt" function to start online coffee social networking, and it is convenient to order a cup of TA's favorite customized drink saved in Xingka for friends.

Different from the previous Starbucks third Space, the new Starbucks function this year tends to be more online coffee and less social.

As we all know, "third Space" is the logo of Starbucks for a long time, and it is also one of the most important scene areas for Starbucks. This concept plays the third most important role in life after home and office. The unique "Starbucks experience" created also creates a more relaxed and free place for customers to talk freely.

Starbucks believes that the so-called "third space" refers to the social space that we can feel relaxed, happy and soothing besides life and work.

The new Coffee Light Social feature launched this year focuses more on online coffee social services.

The launch of the online coffee social service means that Starbucks has better realized the online and offline social consumption scene, in other words, Starbucks has entered the new social retail track.

Baidu encyclopedia explains:

Social New Retail (Social New Retailer), a new retail model based on social network, is the product of the integration of social commerce and new retail.

The concept of social retailing has existed for many years. "New Retail" was first proposed at the Cloud Conference in 2016, and "Social New Retail" is a more efficient retail model that makes full use of online and offline social channels.

For Starbucks, Starbucks began to accelerate the layout of online consumption scenes after it launched "online click" in China on May 21, 2019, to get the new function "Kaikai".

In February 2020, affected by the epidemic, Starbucks improved its previous "dedicated star delivery" delivery service and "Kaikai" mobile order service by launching a "contactless Starbucks experience" to encourage customers to place orders online and reduce their stay in stores. Further enhance the customer experience during the epidemic.

At the end of May 2020, WeChat Mini Programs partnered with Tencent, a competitor of Starbucks, to launch Starbucks, offering membership rights and special star distribution services, as well as launching a takeout service and selling surrounding areas.

In July 2020, the Starbucks "Kaikai" service, which focuses on "online, pick it up at the store", was fully integrated into Alibaba's commercial operating system, and the online platforms also included Alipay, Taobao, word of mouth and Gaode.

It is not difficult to see that Starbucks is no longer just creating a "third space", but a combination of online and offline social consumption scenes.

In addition, as early as June 1, 2019, Starbucks China made major changes to the structure of its management team. Starbucks China announced the launch of two new businesses, Starbucks Retail (third Space) and Digital Innovation (fourth Space), thus further expanding the size of the Chinese market.

Especially in the epidemic situation, digital innovation has obviously become an important fulcrum for the overall business development of major enterprises. Starbucks said when it launched "Starka" that it hoped to build a more humane digital ecosystem through evolving digital product functions, to provide customers with a convenient and warm Starbucks experience.

From a series of online innovations at Starbucks, it can be predicted that "online social networking" in the future is also one of the directions for Starbucks to expand its new scene.

* Image source: Internet