According to its interim CEO Howard Schultz, the multinational coffee franchise company Starbucks is planning to introduce a new Web3 rewards program to draw in and keep customers.
Schultz mentioned that Starbucks will soon launch a new Web3 “digital project” that will enhance the company’s loyalty program during the company’s fiscal Q3 results call on Tuesday:
“This new digital Web 3-enabled initiative will allow us to build on the current Starbucks Rewards engagement model with its powerful spend-to-earn Stars approach while also introducing new methods of emotionally engaging customers.”
The company is considering “integrating our digital Starbucks Rewards ecosystem with Starbucks-branded digital collectibles as both a reward and a community building aspect,” the CEO said in passing on the call, playing his cards close to his chest. On September 13, during Starbucks’ Investor Day, the entire reveal is scheduled to take place.
“This will create an entirely new set of digital network effects that will attract new customers and be accretive to existing customers in our core retail stores,” he said.
According to reports, the company’s quarterly earnings exceeded analyst expectations, with global revenue rising by 9 percent from one quarter to the next to a record $8.2 billion.
Schultz also mentioned on the call that the Web3 move is a part of an effort to draw in and keep Starbucks’ younger clientele.
“We don’t want to be in a business where our customer base is aging and we have a less relevant situation with younger people,” he said, adding that the company has “never been, in our history, more relevant than we are today to Gen Z.”
Back in April, when Schultz stated that Starbucks would “be in the NFT business sometime before the end of the calendar year,” the company first revealed its intentions to join the nonfungible token (NFT) bandwagon.
A Web3 loyalty program may not just be introduced by Starbucks in the near future.
Hang, a blockchain startup for business-to-business transactions, earned $16 million in Series A funding last month from Paradigm. The business wants to assist brands in integrating NFTs into their existing membership and loyalty programs and transferring them to the blockchain.
Among the company’s earliest clients are reportedly the brewer Budweiser, the sports publication Bleacher Report, and the well-known music festival acts Bonnaroo and Superfly.
