On January 18, Starbucks China announced an innovative cooperation with Meituan on digital space. The collaboration will leverage the online platform's comprehensive services to reach its advantages and explore multiple technological means to deliver Starbucks' "coffee space" to consumers. In addition, the upgraded Starbucks "special star delivery" service is fully launched on the Meituan takeaway, and consumers can enjoy many rights and interests such as membership rights and interests, exclusive delivery services and customized order experience.
It is reported that Starbucks booked an exclusive space service product "1971 Living Room" online for the first time in the Meituan App and Dianping App. Consumers can book exclusive spaces in Starbucks stores online and experience personalized scenes and services such as business meetings and themed gatherings.
With the wave of digital upgrading of the service industry, the boundaries of online and offline consumption space are gradually being broken. Combing through past media reports, it is found that Starbucks' concept of "third space" is also quietly changing, and the "third space" subordinate to offline scenes is gradually upgraded to "connecting online and offline integration space".
From the instant delivery of "everything to home" in the same city to the digital coffee space that can interact with baristas instantly, the cooperation between Starbucks and Meituan is a new exploration of the digital upgrading of the consumer service industry.
The "Third Space" extends to the digital world, where consumers can book the "Coffee Bureau" online
In the digital era, in order to better meet the increasingly diversified and personalized space needs of consumers, Starbucks and Meituan have jointly promoted the innovative model of the catering industry to create a new comprehensive space service product "1971 Living Room", which was first launched by Meituan, with the intention of redefining the "third space".
"In the two years confined to the epidemic, technological innovations have blurred the boundaries between home, work and third space. The same location, the realization of a variety of scenes and functions, has become a habitual way of life. "It was this insight that allowed us to explore how to turn a Starbucks store into a '1971 living room' for everyone." ”
At present, the "1971 Living Room" service is the first to be launched in more than 60 Starbucks specialty stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu, and the first phase provides two new services of "coffee has a bureau" and "living room meeting", respectively, positioning the scene of the leisure gathering of friends and the scene of business meeting/community gathering. Consumers can inquire about the special services of the store and make space reservations through the Meituan App and the Dianping App.
According to reports, in the future, the "1971 Living Room" and digital booking services will gradually cover more Starbucks stores across the country, and some featured stores will also launch theme activities such as pet parties and sign language classes.
▲ Consumers experience Starbucks' "1971 living room" through Meituan reservation. Photo courtesy of He Xin
As an important partner of Starbucks in China, Meituan has also landed and applied its "Super Store" innovative product function to Starbucks for the first time. "Super Store" creates an online multi-functional product module for brand customization, and through "central deployment + differentiated operation of stores", it gives chain brands the ability to differentiate operations based on the dimensions of each independent store.
With the help of this product capability, each Starbucks store will be brought to life into the digital space, and the unique "personality" of the store's different space design, special products, star baristas, event schedules and customer communities will be fully presented in the digital space for the first time, and the emotional connection between the store and consumers will be extended to the online, truly realizing the integration of online and offline.
"Not only to deliver the coffee to the home, but also to get the taste of the coffee to the home"
The fully upgraded Starbucks "special star delivery" service has also been launched nationwide on The Meituan takeaway, and consumers can enjoy many rights and interests such as exclusive discounted goods, membership rights and interests, exclusive delivery services, and customized orders. It is worth mentioning that the "Starbucks Reserve" series of coffee products that can only be enjoyed in the store before will land on the special star for the first time, and you can also enjoy the taste of the best-grade coffee at home.
In order to ensure that the delivery and the coffee enjoyed in the store are consistent, Meituan Takeaway is equipped with an exclusive delivery team for Starbucks "special star delivery", providing more efficient delivery services, and training riders on coffee distribution knowledge, improving service standards from the aspects of rider dress, communication skills, and instrument voice, while ensuring high timeliness of delivery, but also allowing consumers to feel a more intimate and convenient coffee delivery service experience.
▲ Meituan riders are delivering Starbucks special stars to send orders. Photo courtesy of He Xin
"Now consumers not only require coffee to be delivered to home, but also require us to send the complete coffee taste to home", a Meituan person said, Meituan is optimizing the distribution of categories with high aging taste requirements such as coffee, and in the future, it is hoped to help more coffee shops serve consumers through more customized distribution.
In addition to the optimization of the delivery experience, Starbucks has also launched more service experience upgrades with Meituan Takeaway. In the consumer inquiry link, search for "Starbucks" keywords, if there are more stores around, you will give priority to entering the brand area, quickly recommend "sufficient goods", "fastest delivery" and "selection series" stores, and make takeaway choices with more peace of mind and confidence.
In the consumer ordering process, Starbucks and Meituan Takeaway provide a variety of customized options, which can choose different cup types, temperatures, extraction methods and milk types according to their own tastes, without compromising their taste preferences on "special star delivery".
Like the in-store experience, the Starbucks "My Starbucks Rewards Club" membership system has also been fully connected with Meituan Takeaway, whether purchased in store or delivered to home, Starbucks membership points can be accumulated to ensure that consumers can enjoy the same membership rights and interests when placing orders on different platforms.
In addition, Starbucks also launched the intelligent out-of-stock guidance service for the first time in Meituan Takeaway, and when the goods purchased by consumers are temporarily out of stock, they will automatically transfer orders to nearby stores and synchronize shopping cart items, without repeated selection and improve the efficiency of ordering.
"Through the improvement of technology and service capabilities, online platforms can play an amplification and superposition effect on the offline consumer service industry", an industry analyst believes that the cooperation between Starbucks and Meituan in the "digital space" may have the opportunity to spawn a unique new model of digital consumption.