Starbucks preps Web3 based rewards programme announcement

Starbucks will unveil a Web3 initiative at next month’s Investor Day event.

This was first flagged up in early 2022.

During its fiscal Q2 2022 earnings call, the coffee giant said that NFTs can help extend its concept of the “third place”, that is, a place between home and work where people can feel a sense of belonging over coffee.

The.company has brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to help serve as a special advisor on the project.

And Founder and current interim CEO Howard Schultz, who returned to the fray in April, has now teased an announcement during this week’s earnings call with investors.

“We have been working on a very exciting new digital initiative that builds on our existing industry leading digital platform in innovative new ways all centred around coffee and most importantly, loyalty, that we will reveal at Investor Day,” Schultz said.

He added: “We believe this new digital Web3 enabled initiative will allow us to build on the current Starbucks Rewards engagement model with its powerful spend to earn stars approach while also introducing new methods of emotionally engaging customers.”

“It will expand our digital third place community, and offer a broader set of rewards, including one of a kind experiences that you can’t get anywhere else, integrating our digital Starbucks Rewards ecosystem with Starbucks branded digital collectibles as both a reward and a community building element.”

“This will create an entirely new set of digital network effects that will attract new customers and be accretive to existing customers in our core retail stores.”

Also during the earnings call, Schultz stated: “We don’t want to be in a business where our customer base is ageing and we have a less relevant situation with younger people.”

The company, he argued has “never been, in our history, more relevant than we are today to Gen Z.”

“To me, that cohort is so powerful, and the attachment rate that we have with them and the loyalty is just building.”