Starbucks is exploring blockchain and Web3 by releasing a series of NFT collections that upgrade a new level of loyalty program for their customers.
Howard Schultz, Starbucks'CEO, and Brady Brewer, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, explained to investors during their Q2 2022 earnings presentation that the coffee company will incorporate new concepts such as ownership and community-based membership models in the Web 3 space.
Following the retirement of Kevin Johnson, who had been serving as Starbucks CEO since 2017, Howard Schultz is back in the post as interim chief executive officer.
During his three-decade tenure at the coffee chain, Schultz guided the firm through its growth from 11 stores and 100 workers to 28,000 locations in 190 countries and territories.
Starbucks NFTs
As reported by The Verge, Starbucks plans to create a series of branded NFT collections, the ownership of which initiates community membership and allows for access to exclusive experiences and perks.
To make the NFT collection possible, the coffee company will collaborate with artists and other like-minded brands that both share the same artistic expression.
The company believes NFTs have broad potential to create an expanded, shared-ownership model for loyalty programs, capable of offering unique experiences, community building, storytelling, and customer engagement.
The company hopes that by doing this, it will become a source of accretive business that can benefit a number of stakeholders in the process, while creating a new type of digital ecosystem to complement Starbucks' current digital platform offering.
Starbucks has always been known as a company that evolves in tandem with technology and the rapidly changing market. This move made the company accessible and appealing to mass audiences, which resulted in attracting more customers globally.
Using our experience with loyalty, mobile payment, and mobile ordering, the company has learned how to engage customers at scale in order to create new possibilities.
In this area as well, the Starbucks Digital Community Web3 platform has the potential to be the first to combine an approachable, widely accessible front-end with the correct blockchain technology that is both efficient and economical.
Starbucks' Plans Moving Forward
The company reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $674.5 million, or 58 cents per share, a significant increase compared to the earnings in the same period last year of $659.4 million, or 56 cents per share.
As reported by CNBC, net sales increased by 14.5 percent to $7.64 billion, exceeding analysts' projections of $7.6 billion for the quarter. Global same-store sales climbed by 7% in the third quarter, with robust growth in the United States driving the increase.
In the United States, same-store sales increased by 12% as customers paid more per order and visited more frequently.In addition, the company's active membership in its loyalty program has increased by 17 percent to 26.7 million customers.
The company continues to grow, and it stated that they will still embody its commitment to sustainability. The firm stated that it will develop its NFT community on an "environmentally friendly" web3 platform-a decision that it said would be more in accordance with its previous sustainability objectives.
The company intends to take a staged approach to entering the blockchain industry. It plans to move quickly, experiment, learn, and collaborate.
Lastly, it plans to launch the NFT collection, an improved loyalty program, and a community later this year, with a focus on coffee art and storytelling.
