STARBUCKS OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY:

Starbucks success with omnichannel retailing – particularly the

changes they’ve made in the last year, provides a playbook for
successful omnichannel tactics. Each section will first look at specific
strategies and tactics that Starbucks is using..

 Deepen Relationships with Purposeful Channel

Expansion

In 2018, Starbucks had a problem. While their most loyal group of

customers were actively enrolled in Starbucks Rewards that left 60
million customers a month who had no digital relationship with the
brand at all.

Once it identified, establishing a digital relationship with these

customers became the cornerstone for expanding Starbuck’s
omnichannel retailing strategy.

Starbuck’s playbook is simple. First, they identify what their strongest

customer touchpoint is and incentivize channel adoption with a clear
benefit during that touchpoint.
In their case, they already had 28,000 physical stores with 75 million
monthly customers. They identified a key benefit and parlayed that
service into new customer relationships via email.

 Create Incentives and Force Channel Adoption

In March 2018, the company decided to gate free wi-fi.

In order to access the internet, customers first had to register with an

email address. We can say that, they forced a digital relationship,
gaining permission to contact customers via a new email in exchange
for access to free wi-fi.

Internally, customers who have inputted their email but have yet to
sign up for Starbucks Rewards (SR) are called “digitally registered
customers”.

Since creating this category, they’ve added 10 million digitally

registered customers to their database.
The ultimate goal of digitally registered customers is to motivate them
to become a part of their Starbucks Rewards program.

 Drive Brand Engagement and Retention in New

Channels

Starbucks uses these newly acquired email addresses to drive

retention and purchase frequency.

While a variety of offers and communications are sent, to stand out.

First, is a recurring flagship offer: Happy Hours.

In this email, Starbucks sends a discount offer on a specific product

category (such as teas, seasonal drinks, or Frappuccino’s). The offer is
limited, often expiring same day and only available during certain
time frames.

The goal is to drive digitally registered customers into stores during

non-peak hours. Offers are geared toward premium products, serving
as a gateway to more profitable SKUs.

Second,

Customers are given regular incentives to progress through the funnel.

they email an offer of a free drink when they create a SR account. The
exact offers sent are personalized to the types of products a digitally
registered customer has bought in the past.
So these are the strategies that makes Starbucks a successful omni
channel retailing.