Starbucks Brandishes Web3 Reward to Draw New Customers

Starbucks Acting CEO, Howard Schultz, said the company’s new initiative will create a new series of digital effects. The idea is to draw new customers and stabilize the patronage of old customers in their retail stores.

Coffee for Web3 Appreciation

The global coffee retail giant said it is planning to begin a web3 reward that is going to draw and maintain customers’ patronage. The company’s CEO spoke at its quarter 3 fiscal earnings meeting on Tuesday. Schultz said the initiative will further expand Starbucks’ loyalty program.

He said the new digital initiative will let Starbucks build upon the existing company reward model. It will utilize its spend-to-earn approach while it introduces a new method to engage customers emotionally.

Although the CEO tried to keep his cards close as much as possible, he, however, stated during the meeting that the company plans to integrate its digital reward ecosystem. It will carry digital collectibles branded with Starbucks as both community building materials and rewards. The project will be fully revealed at the Starbucks Investors Day scheduled for the 13th of September.

Starbucks’ quarterly data was said to beat the estimates of analysts. It came in at a 9% Q-on-Q jump in its global income to land at $8.2 billion.

Schultz also mentioned during the meeting that the company is making web3 moves. He said it is part of the drawing and maintaining the patronage of customers. The target customer base for the web3 strategy is, however, younger customers.

Wider Adoption

He said that the company does not want to be in a kind of business with an aging customer base. The company should not be losing relevance with younger people, Schultz said. Adding that the company has not been as relevant to Gen Z in its history as it is today.

Starbucks made announcements in April that it was going to jump on the NFT bandwagon. Schultz mentioned that the company will be in the NFT space before the end of this year.

Starbucks will not be the only big brand to open up a web3 reward program as we go into the future. Hang, a B-2-B blockchain startup had $16 million in Series A funding. The fundraiser was led by Paradigm. The company plans to help transform its membership base and reward programs into blockchain and adopt NFTs. 

Hang is said to have secured the patronage of beer maker, Budweiser and music group, Bonnaroo. It has also secured Bleacher Report, a media company as well as Superfly, another music group.