Starbucks to join the Internet of things family

Starbucks, known for offering free WIFI to its customers, now wants to make more use of web technology in its business to network coffee makers and refrigerators and electrical equipment. Starbucks said it plans to double the number of Clover coffee machines in use next year, which will be connected to the Internet cloud to track customer preferences, update receipts digitally and help clerks monitor the status of coffee machines remotely. In addition, Starbucks plans to connect the refrigerator to the Internet so that it can warn if the milk in the refrigerator goes bad.

Now more and more coffee shops, fast food restaurants and retailers connect their operations to the Internet, so that they can not only better serve customers, but also control everything from temperature to door locks. Apart from smartphones and computers, the market for the Internet of things, the Internet of things, will triple to $27 billion by 2016, according to Cisco Systems, so Cisco is investing heavily in the Internet of things business.

Ordinary consumers have also felt this trend of the Internet of things in recent years, with home photo frames, thermostats and security systems, as well as televisions and stereos all connected to the Internet. Technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel and IBM have also been promoting the development of Cyber House since the 1990s.

At Starbucks, the associated cloud technology, known as CloverNet, can effectively reduce maintenance costs and support the production of special flavors of coffee on Clover coffee machines. However, these new technologies are still in the early stages of application, because even if costs fall, expensive installation costs remain a threshold for the low-margin retail industry, but Starbucks believes this trend will become mainstream in the future.