What Does the Starbucks WeChat Status News Mean for Coffee Retail?

Starbucks launched a WeChat Status feature in China, becoming the first brand to occupy the WeChat Status space. Customers scan a QR code on the in-store message book, or order through the Feikuai mini-app and pay with WeChat Pay, to generate a branded status that links back to the Starbucks mini-program where they can treat friends to coffee.

The move extends a strategy Starbucks has built over several years, from Feikuai and Zhuanxingsong to its WeChat mini-program. Its fiscal 2021 third-quarter report showed same-store sales in China up 19 percent, with 5,135 stores in the country. The status feature turns an order into light online coffee socializing, keeping the brand visible inside a messaging app used daily by millions.

Starbucks recently teamed up with WeChat to launch a brand-new "Starbucks WeChat Status" feature, becoming the first brand to set up shop in WeChat Status. By scanning the QR code on the store message book or using Feikuai to place an order, consumers can generate their own exclusive WeChat Status, enabling light online coffee socializing. In fact, Starbucks has been steadily building out its online social retail presence in recent years, from Feikuai and Zhuanxingsong to the WeChat mini-program, continuously expanding new coffee social scenarios. Meanwhile, Starbucks' financial report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2021 shows that same-store sales in China grew 19%, with the total number of stores reaching 5,135. This article will provide a comprehensive analysis of how the Starbucks WeChat Status works and the social new retail strategy behind it.

Starbucks has made another move!

On July 28, the world's largest coffee chain brand Starbucks and WeChat jointly launched a brand-new feature — Starbucks WeChat Status.

According to Starbucks' official Weibo, Starbucks has fully upgraded its "Starbucks Message Book." At more than 5,000 Starbucks stores nationwide, consumers simply need to open WeChat's Scan feature and scan the Starbucks-exclusive WeChat Status QR code to get a Starbucks-exclusive "WeChat Status."

In addition, tapping the small Starbucks icon in the status will redirect to the official Starbucks mini-program, where you can also treat friends to coffee (hurry to WeChat Status and recommend coffee to your friends). There are two entry points for the Starbucks-exclusive WeChat Status. One is scanning the QR code on the message book mentioned above, and creating your favorite "Starbucks Status" within WeChat Status.

The other entry point is using the "Feikuai" feature on WeChat and paying via WeChat Pay, which generates a "Starbucks WeChat Status" in one tap, composed of a Feikuai code, coffee topic tags, and a Starbucks-customized background image.

It is said that this "Starbucks WeChat Status" feature is the first brand to set up shop in the "WeChat Status" feature.

"WeChat Status" is a new WeChat feature that went viral across the internet not long ago. Users can post their own "WeChat Status" and also browse friends with the same status. Not long after the feature launched, many netizens came up with new ways to play with it.

In addition, WeChat also teamed up with QQ Music to launch an interesting hidden feature — listening to songs directly via WeChat Status. In other words, friends in the same status can directly tap the status to listen to that song.

There is no doubt that the reason "WeChat Status" went viral is that this feature can better showcase personal status and express needs, while also bringing friends socially closer.

And the reason Starbucks launched "Starbucks WeChat Status" is perhaps that it saw how "WeChat Status" can serve as a social bridge for finding like-minded people. "Starbucks WeChat Status" is, in fact, also leaning toward an online light coffee socializing feature.

However, over the past year or two, Starbucks has already rolled out multiple online "coffee social" services.

For example:

On May 21, 2019, Starbucks launched a brand-new "order online, pick up in store" feature in China called "Feikuai Starbucks Now."

In February 2020, Starbucks improved its previous "Zhuanxingsong" delivery service and "Feikuai" mobile ordering service, launching the "contactless Starbucks experience" and encouraging customers to order online.

At the end of May 2020, Starbucks partnered with Tencent, Alibaba's competitor, to launch a WeChat mini-program offering membership benefits and Zhuanxingsong delivery services, and rolled out delivery services as well as merchandise sales.

In July 2020, Starbucks' "Feikuai" service, centered on "order online, pick up in store," was fully integrated into Alibaba's business operating system, with launch platforms also including Alipay, Taobao, Koubei, and Amap.

On March 16, 2021, Starbucks China's Feikuai™ service officially landed on the WeChat mini-program. At the same time, Starbucks also launched two new features, "Bring for TA" and "Coffee Social Experience Edition," debuting on the WeChat mini-program. These two service features are likewise based on Starbucks' insight into the social attributes within the WeChat ecosystem. Through coffee accounts, Starbucks has created a brand-new coffee circle.

From the WeChat mini-program and Bring for TA features that Starbucks launched to its latest move into the new "Starbucks Status" scenario, this series of online innovations makes it easy to see that Starbucks has entered the social new retail track and places great emphasis on online coffee social services. In the future, "online socializing" will also be one of the directions for Starbucks' expansion of new scenarios.

In addition, on July 27, US Eastern Time, Starbucks released its financial report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2021. The Q3 report shows that Starbucks' net revenue in the third fiscal quarter was $7.5 billion, up 78% year-on-year, with same-store sales in China growing 19%.

In terms of store count, the Q3 report shows that Starbucks China has fully recovered to its pre-pandemic store growth rate. In the third quarter, Starbucks China opened 162 new stores, bringing the total number of stores to 5,135.

Starbucks expects its total store count to reach 6,000 by 2022. Starbucks also said that new stores in China will continue to deliver strong store profitability and returns.

To sum up,

what Starbucks actually wants:

In addition to the "third place" it has been proud of in the past, social consumption scenarios combining online and offline are also one of the new scenarios Starbucks will expand into going forward.

*Image source: Starbucks official Weibo, internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.