Starbucks China announced an innovative partnership with Meituan on digital space

Cover news reporter Wu Yujia Zhang Yuexi

In recent years, the domestic coffee market has become more and more lively, the Manner small shop model has been warmly welcomed by capital, Tims has rapidly expanded its stores in China, emerging Internet brands such as Santo and a Half, Shicui, and Yongpu have turned to open stores offline, and even Luckin has also turned popular among young consumers with the strategy of low-price and new products. Veteran player Starbucks is also actively seeking a breakthrough.

On January 18, Starbucks China announced an innovative cooperation with Meituan on the 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. After the upgraded Starbucks "special star delivery" service is fully launched on Meituan takeaway, consumers can enjoy many rights and interests such as membership rights and interests, exclusive delivery services and customized order experience.

With the wave of digital upgrading of the service industry, the boundaries of online and offline consumption space are gradually being broken. Starbucks' concept of "third space" is also quietly changing, and the "third space" that belongs to the offline scene is gradually upgraded to "the integration space connecting online and offline". Starbucks China CEO Tsai Saiden admits, "In the two years of the epidemic, technological innovation has 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. ”

Therefore, this cooperation Starbucks also booked an exclusive space service product "1971 Living Room" online for the first time on 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. At the same time, Meituan also landed its "super store" innovative product function for the first time and applied it to Starbucks, and more than 5,000 Starbucks stores across the country will have the operational capability in a single store dimension through the model of "central deployment + differentiated operation of stores".

It is worth noting that this is the first time that Starbucks has settled on other takeaway platforms in addition to Hungry. As early as August 2018, Starbucks and Alibaba announced a strategic partnership, and starting in September, Starbucks trial-run Ele.me's delivery business in about 150 stores in Beijing and Shanghai. Xu Hong, then vice president of Alibaba, introduced that Starbucks and Alibaba signed an exclusive agreement on end-to-end delivery. According to public information, the three-year exclusive distribution cooperation agreement expired on December 31, 2021.

The cooperation between Starbucks and the takeaway platform is, on the one hand, close to the consumption habits of Chinese consumers and increases diversified services, on the other hand, the opening of member data will be conducive to the traffic diversion between the two sides. According to the data, Starbucks's 2021 fiscal annual report shows that its annual revenue in the Chinese market is 3.7 billion US dollars, and according to the previously announced sales of 15% of the sales of special star delivery orders, the annual size of Starbucks' Chinese takeaway market has been about 3.5 billion yuan.

"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.

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