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What else does Starbucks sell besides coffee?

Published: 2026-03-29 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/03/29, As the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks is also expanding its market in China, opening an average of one new store every day. So does the industry giant just sell coffee? In fact, it is also a technology company. China was Starbucks' fastest growing retail market in 2014.

As the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks is also expanding its market in China, opening an average of one new store every day. So does the industry giant just sell coffee? In fact, it is also a technology company.

In 2014, China was Starbucks' fastest growing retail market in the world. In 2014, Starbucks opened an average of one new store a day in China. According to Starbucks' plan for the Chinese market to reach 3400 stores in 2019, this means that Starbucks will need to open an average of 400 stores in China each year over the next five years. This speed is unprecedented. Is selling coffee so awesome?

Starbucks is actually a technology company.

Sell newspapers

Compared with traditional retailers with a conservative temperament, Starbucks, a chain that can be found everywhere in first-tier cities, may be the most tech-savvy cafe in the world. Recently, it introduced a new function of "reading newspaper" on mobile. It is reported that starting from next year, Starbucks will launch a free reading service in conjunction with the New York Times. Through Starbucks App, Starbucks card members can read the news of the New York Times for free, including Jinri Toutiao, daily bulletins and some of the latest articles on political, economic and social issues.

If the news is not enjoyable enough, users can directly subscribe to the paid content of the New York Times. Starbucks has always encouraged consumers to buy products or services from their partners. in return, members will receive points for Starbucks cards, which they can then use to exchange drinks and food in the store. In the near future, Starbucks members will also receive bonus points for buying paid content from the New York Times on App.

Anyone familiar with Starbucks knows that this is not the first time it has "sold newspapers". Before the rise of new online social media such as Facebook, Twittwer and Weibo, Starbucks sold millions of newspapers on its shelves. When the company launched its own digital network (Starbucks Digital Network) in North America in the fall of 2010, users could already read paid content from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, the Economist and other media in the store through the free WiFi network.

Sell records

Not only newspapers and magazines, but also Starbucks has undergone a transformation into a "technology company" in the field of music.

In February, Starbucks announced that it would stop selling records in its stores. In fact, Starbucks sold 4.4 million albums in North America last year, up 22% from a year earlier. In the declining era of the record industry, many music companies and artists are glad that their records can appear in thousands of Starbucks stores. Tom Corson, executive vice president of American radio and record company RCAMusicGroup, once commented that companies like Starbucks happen to have a great influence on customers who don't have their own ideas, and it is very good at guiding people who don't know how to find records, especially those who find the right ones. Even so, Starbucks decided to follow the trend of digital music.

While no longer selling records, it began a partnership with Spotify.

After the two companies work together, Starbucks members can make suggestions on Spotify that will affect the songs played in Starbucks stores. In addition, more than 150000 Starbucks employees across the United States have directly upgraded to premium members of Spotify, with a $9.99 monthly subscription service that allows them to play their chosen songs while making coffee. On the other hand, Spotify will add new Starbucks features, such as "Starbucks most popular Song list", as well as song lists made by different Starbucks stores.

Starbucks said it aims to create a new "music ecosystem" among 7000 US stores, 10 million Starbucks members and 60 million Spotify paying users.

To many people's surprise, Starbucks' App is still the most successful mobile payment system in the United States. After founder Howard Schultz returned to the company, Starbucks set up its venture capital division and appointed its chief digital officer to enter the digital age. In 2012, the company invested $25 million in Square and later launched its own mobile payment app. After its launch, the app quickly covered 6800 self-owned stores and more than 2000 partner stores in the United States.

Launch mobile payment

According to Starbucks' transaction statistics in the United States, Starbucks currently processes more than 7 million mobile payment transactions a week, accounting for 16% of all transactions, making it the leader in the u.s. mobile payments market.

Last year, Starbucks also launched a new function in Portland, the United States, to pay for App orders and, more recently, to pick up coffee from stores, where users can use App to know how long it takes to make a reservation and calculate the time it takes to arrive at the store. This year, Starbucks plans to promote the service across the United States.

In addition, Starbucks has been actively promoting technological innovation in other infrastructure areas, such as promoting wireless charging tables, where consumers can charge their phones in real time through wireless charging stations on their desktops or bars in any of their 7500 stores, and partnering with Google to develop in-store WiFi that is 10 times faster than AT&T 's WiFi network. It even connects the coffee maker in the store to the "cloud" to track users' preferences.

For Starbucks, continuous innovation to improve the overall user experience is always more important than focusing on how to sell coffee.

Source: world wide Web

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