Starbucks, which has the best life in China, has come up with a new thing, 'tea'.

In addition to selling coffee, Starbucks also wants to build an extension of the "fourth space" while enhancing the customer store experience, launching Starbucks Tmall official flagship store, electronic star card/star gift card and mobile payment.

At the end of 2015, Starbucks Tmall official flagship store officially opened, realizing the connection between online and store experience, forming the "Internet + Coffee" platform. On June 20 this year, Starbucks launched member-only mobile payments in China. Starshare Club members can instantly experience Starbucks mobile payment by binding star gift cards in Starbucks APP.

It is understood that Starbucks members only need to bind any kind of star gift card in Starbucks APP4.0, and they can quickly complete payment by scanning the two-dimensional code of electronic star gift card in more than 2200 Starbucks stores in the mainland of China, and can recharge repeatedly in the stores, saving the trouble of making up change. In addition, its online balance inquiry function also allows members to keep track of their consumption trends at any time. At present, customers can use mobile payment methods such as UnionPay Flash Payment, Apple Pay and Starbucks Electronic Star Gift Card to complete fast payment at Starbucks stores.

China Business Daily reporter learned that Starbucks mobile payment in the United States has actually been the first "test water", as early as 2009 Starbucks launched mobile payment function. In 2015, Starbucks launched the "pre-order" service again in North America. Customers can buy drinks in advance through APP, choose the taste of milk candy and complete the payment. It takes about 10 to 20 minutes to take coffee directly from the selected store, and directly offset the distance with the queue time in the store, saving the time cost of both parties. According to Bloomberg analysis, in the first quarter of 2016, more than 20% of Starbucks payments in the United States were made through mobile apps. Starbucks told Bloomberg in March that it hopes to roll out its pre-order service to Asia this year and pilot it in China and Japan.

Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Kevin Johnson said at the earnings conference that mobile ordering and payment systems are gaining more and more consumer recognition in the United States. "An average of 8 million transactions per month are completed through the system, equivalent to 4% of total transactions in the second quarter of 2016."

But facing Starbucks 'largest international market, China, Starbucks is slightly "low-key" when almost all chain restaurant companies and retail channels are competing to cooperate with Alipay or WeChat.

Starbucks China said that there are different degrees of differences between China and the US market in terms of digitalization process, technology application and consumption habits, so the digital innovation made in the two markets is also different. "In each market, we focus on the needs of our local customers and seek new ways and platforms to enhance the customer's 'fourth space' experience."