Starbucks is forced to take out, but the store experience is its advantage
On August 2, Starbucks and Alibaba reached a strategic cooperation to “integrate mobile commerce into core business”. The cooperation involves many departments of Ali, in addition to the previous Tmall flagship store Star Card, which supports Alipay to pay the bill, but also joined the hungry delivery coffee, and the creation of “send star chef” with box horse freshman. .
If you simply summarize what this cooperation brings to Starbucks, then there is no doubt that it is "delivering." With the development of the take-away market, Starbucks will face up to the challengers such as coffee and Rui Xing, which are solely for coffee delivery.
Delivery is not, and will not be a competitive factor for Starbucks. Starbucks has always used consumption and interaction in its own physical store, the coffee shop, as its biggest selling point, and at the same time introduced and practiced the "third space" theory in the catering industry.
Starbucks China chose to cut into take-out at this time. The only reasonable explanation is that the target users who have money and leisure to shop to enjoy this "third space" are now less and less. This may be a last resort decision.
First, Starbucks delivery is not superior in quality and price.
This collaboration with Alibaba is the last legacy of Starbucks CEO Schultz, and it was also announced in the context of Starbucks' latest earnings report showing a 7.6% drop in China's profit margin.
After the joint education of many companies including Starbucks, the Chinese coffee/tea market has matured, and many new competitors have appeared in the coffee shop and the take-away business.
In terms of store consumption, in addition to Costa, Man Coffee, etc., there are also a large number of small non-chain stores with strong personal characteristics; while the delivery side is McDonald's / KFC, the whole family, even coffee and coffee that cooperates with the take-out platform earlier. Rui Xing et al.
Starbucks is the most typical representative of the shop to consume coffee, the store experience is far better than other rivals, but in the non-store consumption product line is basically a "stocking" state.
Excluding the unofficial "running errands" type of purchases such as Meituan, Hungry, Flash, etc., the coffee products sold by Starbucks outside the store include instant coffee/tea bags, coffee beans, canned/bottled coffee drinks, etc. .
Obviously, none of these products are dominant in the market: Nestlé, illy, Uni-President, Coca-Cola, UCC and many domestic tea brands are doing better than Starbucks.
Starbucks signed a global agreement with Nestlé earlier this year to let them manufacture Starbucks brand coffee beans and coffee powder. In the past, the Chinese market also had canned/bottled beverages that were co-operated with Master Kong in supermarkets. Therefore, it can be said that these peripheral products are not the focus of Starbucks development.
In terms of the delivery of coffee, the difference in product quality, Rui Xing, even the coffee and Starbucks is not so big. The tiger sniffing author initiated a small investigation and asked if it was a takeaway and would not like to choose Starbucks. The number of people who chose "No, if it is not worth the sale" is more.
As for the price, the preferential margin brought by the delivery will be limited. Ruixing and even coffee first saved the cost because of pure delivery, and with the price war, this has the market position today. Starbucks can't completely follow the price war, and even send coffee for free.
A few months ago, Ruixun Coffee came to the ground to claim to break Starbucks’ dominance. Even though Starbucks responded with a sigh of relief, it was said not to regard it as a threat, but it was inevitable that people would always Comparison.
Calling the industry bosses to determine the status of their industry's second child, this "positioning" method has long been written into textbooks, but it really has to be hard to add strength and luck.
Second, the delivery has taken away Starbucks' most advantageous store experience.
To make matters worse, the delivery will make a larger part of Starbucks' comparative advantage completely unrecognizable. This is the complete experience of the scene and service that the customer feels when they go to the store.
In order to emphasize the significance of its cafes at the spatial level, Starbucks deliberately selected the most creative café interior design made nationwide and displayed it on the official website.
“The 'third space' carries the concept of Starbucks store design. Our store is full of vitality because we use real materials to create a warm and warm atmosphere. The classic elements are presented in a modern style to pay tribute to the past and continue Advancing the future. Based on coffee, we draw inspiration from nature, textures and patterns to show the origin and details. We will not hesitate to keep the ingenuity. We will celebrate our historical heritage with an optimistic perspective."
Walking or staying in these art-like stores is a pleasure in itself. And if you match the professional clerk service, it is more perfect.
Some Starbucks stores belong to the “Starbucks Selection” series, which provide special coffee products, which are generally presented in front of customers. The “coffee master” wearing black apron brews coffee by hand and explains coffee to customers. The historical story and flavor characteristics, so that the opening of coffee classrooms and other content, can not be presented in the delivery products.
Even in the ordinary Starbucks store, the green apron clerk is trained in uniform standardization, and will strictly implement the Starbucks service charter, regularly enter the community, open courses, and enrich the coffee culture brought by the store.
The author of the Hangtong Society spent a working day morning at a Starbucks store in Yanjiao, Hebei. Yanjiao is a typical "sleeping city", so the shop is empty, and the clerk does not even open the background music of the brainwashing cycle.
But in the store, there is a person who looks like drunk, talking to the clerk, he has gone through many places, drinking the allegedly the best coffee, and said he can judge all kinds of coffee beans. s difference. His voice is so loud that others can only wear headphones.
Communicating with people who really love coffee, or people of all shapes and sizes in general, may be a unique pleasure as a Starbucks "buddy."
Starbucks is a sentimental brand that is often remembered by systematically trained Starbucks “partners” and guides their workplace and even their lives.
Another example of using a similar professionalism to infect employees is the Apple Store. The Apple Store has also been in China for ten years. Recently, the Hangtong News Agency has seen that there are articles detailing the precious feelings of former employees on this career, which may coincide with the feelings of Starbucks employees at the grassroots level. .
After this kind of baptism in the branches of a formal multinational company, the clerk works in it, not only to earn wages, but also a sense of mission, and a sense of belonging with the family.
Therefore, if coffee shops try to compete with Starbucks with the store experience as an indicator, it is difficult to overcome the decades of experience and cultural heritage of Starbucks.
In the Chinese market, coffee take-out is re-opening a new track to compete in addition to Starbucks' established model. This makes the accumulation of Starbucks online store experience somewhat meaningless.
Third, the rich consumption can not stay for a long time, staying in the store is not how to spend
Starbucks has a rule when it comes to training employees called "Just say yes." It’s part of this “never refuse” to talk to the elder brother who talked about the above mentioned.
In China, this rule has caused Starbucks “partners” to suffer some additional troubles. Some stores are too close to the elderly community and are regarded as "chess and cards room" and "matching corners." The old people took the mug to pick up a small cup of the cheapest American style, so stay for one afternoon.
Even so, Starbucks does not want to drive them away. You can find from a lot of travel notes and Raiders that Starbucks is the only store that really allows you to come in and not consume, compared to rivals such as Costa and Pacific Coffee.
Opening a café is not a charity, so letting this "third space" be like a cloud, the premise of a long-lasting redemption is that it can contribute to revenue steadily. In other words, there must be enough people to complete the consumption at the store.
However, Starbucks allows some customers to occupy seats for a long time at a very low cost, which undoubtedly affects the “turnover rate”. Although it can enrich the facade during non-golden periods, it may cause some people who would like to enter the store to be discouraged during the peak period. .
For a long time, there have been many relaxing babies, friends gathering, lovers getting along, bargaining, etc. Too many stories are staged in Starbucks venues.
Starbucks entered China in 1999 as the "third space" role until now less than 20 years, replacing the previous "American fast food restaurants" undertaken by McDonald's and KFC.
The Chinese people used to be very strange to the "third space" function of Starbucks, but soon learned how to use it.
In addition to the old people, Starbucks is also a good fit for students who are studying in the study room, as well as freelancers who don't want to go to nine to five.
There may be very few company teams that are willing to use cafes as office locations for a long time, but entrepreneurs and investors are very good at talking in cafes. This demand was so strong 3-4 years ago that it set up a little bit of entrepreneurial cafes.
But the gust of wind quickly blew, and many of the cafes that were built beyond demand were turned off. The economy shows signs of partial coldness. Whether it is online entrepreneurship or the real economy, fewer and fewer people can continue to "wave" outside the freelance, and they have returned to the grid.
When Starbucks' front door Beijing Fang flagship store opened, Starbucks China CEO Cai Dejun hoped that Starbucks could become an all-weather space for customers to "drink from morning to evening":
"Come for a cup of coffee in the morning, a cup of tea in the afternoon, and a bar party in the evening."
However, the Beijing Fang flagship store has now become a tourist attraction, even in the daytime of the working day, the queue of people can often reach 20 or 30 people. At the end of the team, it takes about half an hour to enter. Most people who can't wait, just look at the location.
To be honest, there are too many people in the world who have to work normally. They don't have the time and energy to have the privilege of staying in the "third space" for a long time.
Waiting for meals, holidays, attractions, airports, etc., where people are rushing to spend, and crowds are crowded, Starbucks' proud service experience will be greatly reduced, and even the reception capacity will be saturated.
Starbucks's take-off in the Chinese market began in the past 3-4 years. The company defines China as the most important market outside the US, and some innovative products and formats are also the world's first in China.
Under this circumstance, one thing that people may overlook is that the limelight of take-away coffee gradually overshadows the consumption of coffee under the line, which happens in the last 1-2 years. Therefore, Starbucks’s profit margin in China has declined for the first time in years, and it is happening now.
Fourth, do takeaway is not the focus, or to improve the physical store
Some people from the cooperation between Starbucks and Ali will conclude that Starbucks has shifted some of its development focus to takeaway. However, the Hangtong News Agency believes that Starbucks fundamentally hopes to further improve and develop, and it is still an offline experience with its long-term advantages.
As for the official introduction of take-away, one is to crowd out the unofficial purchasing group, to prevent the re-enactment of even the coffee from the purchase to the independent brand, one is to divert the crowded crowd at the checkout during the peak hours, so that more potential customers have Opportunity to place an order.
We can also choose Shanghai Baking Workshop from Starbucks, which opened in December last year, to see what experience Ali has brought to Starbucks physical storefront. In addition to coffee, this store mainly sells a variety of breads and snacks.
There is no price tag next to these snacks - you can check the price of all baked products by turning on the "Sweep" of the mobile phone Taobao. With the AR AR function, customers can open the in-store map guide and explore every detail of the coffee bar and brewing utensils even if they are not accompanied by the staff.
In addition, after paying with the Alipay scan code, you can "sit" and wait for the notice in the workshop. After the coffee is made, the Alipay App will push a meal reminder.
The Hangtong News Agency originally expected that the new retail mid-station offered by Ali will be opened in the nationwide stores to upgrade the original ordering, cash register, CRM and other systems; at the same time, the Star Card (Membership Card) can be Enter Alipay's card package, completely replacing Starbucks own app.
However, these more logical cooperation contents are not included in the cooperation project disclosed this time. Perhaps this is because the current cooperation is only the beginning, and with such a partnership, the follow-up can be more fully connected.
With the “self-service” provided by mobile phones, the process of customers waiting in the physical store, and the communication with Starbucks clerk and the process of participating in the coffee course can be “mass production” to a certain extent, because not everyone needs a live clerk to accompany them. It can also greatly save the manpower expenditure of physical stores.
The use of mobile phones to complete the order, reminding such functions on the mobile phone when taking a meal, is more conducive to diverting customers during peak hours, and the role and delivery is the same. At McDonald's and KFC, mobile phone ordering applications can already see very obvious results.
As for the Star Club membership system, if it can be exchanged with Ali's "naughty value", it will make some customers who are obsessed with the Starbucks brand stick to the Starbucks delivery business.
The rules for the second year of the elimination of Star Cards are very “exciting” among many chain catering companies in China, and it is urgent to use Ali's mature membership system to improve.
Starbucks has not been acquired by Chinese companies as its McDonald's and KFC. Therefore, Starbucks' localization measures in China will certainly be there, but some core temperament and thinking will not change. This includes insisting on taking the offline as the main position.
Indeed, drinking coffee and sending coffee in the store has shown a trend of change. However, the main group of people drinking coffee behind this is still the same group of people, with the company staff as the main force, and there is no obvious shrinkage.
Even if this is a kind of "demotion downgrade", they will not give the cottage any chance - because the experience that has been enjoyed is no longer able to go back. The basic premise that Ruisheng can get growth is that their quality is at least not significantly different from Starbucks; and the cottage coffee does not get the market.
From this perspective, the opportunity always exists for Starbucks.
Perhaps the only thing Starbucks China can do is to wait slowly, waiting for more people in China to afford Starbucks and treat it as the norm of life; waiting for Starbucks to become like McDonald's and KFC. China’s brand that has achieved great success has entered the hearts of more Chinese people.
Follow Me
Link:Tenco
——END——
If you simply summarize what this cooperation brings to Starbucks, then there is no doubt that it is "delivering." With the development of the take-away market, Starbucks will face up to the challengers such as coffee and Rui Xing, which are solely for coffee delivery.
Delivery is not, and will not be a competitive factor for Starbucks. Starbucks has always used consumption and interaction in its own physical store, the coffee shop, as its biggest selling point, and at the same time introduced and practiced the "third space" theory in the catering industry.
Starbucks China chose to cut into take-out at this time. The only reasonable explanation is that the target users who have money and leisure to shop to enjoy this "third space" are now less and less. This may be a last resort decision.
First, Starbucks delivery is not superior in quality and price.
This collaboration with Alibaba is the last legacy of Starbucks CEO Schultz, and it was also announced in the context of Starbucks' latest earnings report showing a 7.6% drop in China's profit margin.
After the joint education of many companies including Starbucks, the Chinese coffee/tea market has matured, and many new competitors have appeared in the coffee shop and the take-away business.
In terms of store consumption, in addition to Costa, Man Coffee, etc., there are also a large number of small non-chain stores with strong personal characteristics; while the delivery side is McDonald's / KFC, the whole family, even coffee and coffee that cooperates with the take-out platform earlier. Rui Xing et al.
Starbucks is the most typical representative of the shop to consume coffee, the store experience is far better than other rivals, but in the non-store consumption product line is basically a "stocking" state.
Excluding the unofficial "running errands" type of purchases such as Meituan, Hungry, Flash, etc., the coffee products sold by Starbucks outside the store include instant coffee/tea bags, coffee beans, canned/bottled coffee drinks, etc. .
Obviously, none of these products are dominant in the market: Nestlé, illy, Uni-President, Coca-Cola, UCC and many domestic tea brands are doing better than Starbucks.
Starbucks signed a global agreement with Nestlé earlier this year to let them manufacture Starbucks brand coffee beans and coffee powder. In the past, the Chinese market also had canned/bottled beverages that were co-operated with Master Kong in supermarkets. Therefore, it can be said that these peripheral products are not the focus of Starbucks development.
In terms of the delivery of coffee, the difference in product quality, Rui Xing, even the coffee and Starbucks is not so big. The tiger sniffing author initiated a small investigation and asked if it was a takeaway and would not like to choose Starbucks. The number of people who chose "No, if it is not worth the sale" is more.
As for the price, the preferential margin brought by the delivery will be limited. Ruixing and even coffee first saved the cost because of pure delivery, and with the price war, this has the market position today. Starbucks can't completely follow the price war, and even send coffee for free.
A few months ago, Ruixun Coffee came to the ground to claim to break Starbucks’ dominance. Even though Starbucks responded with a sigh of relief, it was said not to regard it as a threat, but it was inevitable that people would always Comparison.
Calling the industry bosses to determine the status of their industry's second child, this "positioning" method has long been written into textbooks, but it really has to be hard to add strength and luck.
Second, the delivery has taken away Starbucks' most advantageous store experience.
To make matters worse, the delivery will make a larger part of Starbucks' comparative advantage completely unrecognizable. This is the complete experience of the scene and service that the customer feels when they go to the store.
In order to emphasize the significance of its cafes at the spatial level, Starbucks deliberately selected the most creative café interior design made nationwide and displayed it on the official website.
“The 'third space' carries the concept of Starbucks store design. Our store is full of vitality because we use real materials to create a warm and warm atmosphere. The classic elements are presented in a modern style to pay tribute to the past and continue Advancing the future. Based on coffee, we draw inspiration from nature, textures and patterns to show the origin and details. We will not hesitate to keep the ingenuity. We will celebrate our historical heritage with an optimistic perspective."
Walking or staying in these art-like stores is a pleasure in itself. And if you match the professional clerk service, it is more perfect.
Some Starbucks stores belong to the “Starbucks Selection” series, which provide special coffee products, which are generally presented in front of customers. The “coffee master” wearing black apron brews coffee by hand and explains coffee to customers. The historical story and flavor characteristics, so that the opening of coffee classrooms and other content, can not be presented in the delivery products.
Even in the ordinary Starbucks store, the green apron clerk is trained in uniform standardization, and will strictly implement the Starbucks service charter, regularly enter the community, open courses, and enrich the coffee culture brought by the store.
The author of the Hangtong Society spent a working day morning at a Starbucks store in Yanjiao, Hebei. Yanjiao is a typical "sleeping city", so the shop is empty, and the clerk does not even open the background music of the brainwashing cycle.
But in the store, there is a person who looks like drunk, talking to the clerk, he has gone through many places, drinking the allegedly the best coffee, and said he can judge all kinds of coffee beans. s difference. His voice is so loud that others can only wear headphones.
Communicating with people who really love coffee, or people of all shapes and sizes in general, may be a unique pleasure as a Starbucks "buddy."
Starbucks is a sentimental brand that is often remembered by systematically trained Starbucks “partners” and guides their workplace and even their lives.
Another example of using a similar professionalism to infect employees is the Apple Store. The Apple Store has also been in China for ten years. Recently, the Hangtong News Agency has seen that there are articles detailing the precious feelings of former employees on this career, which may coincide with the feelings of Starbucks employees at the grassroots level. .
After this kind of baptism in the branches of a formal multinational company, the clerk works in it, not only to earn wages, but also a sense of mission, and a sense of belonging with the family.
Therefore, if coffee shops try to compete with Starbucks with the store experience as an indicator, it is difficult to overcome the decades of experience and cultural heritage of Starbucks.
In the Chinese market, coffee take-out is re-opening a new track to compete in addition to Starbucks' established model. This makes the accumulation of Starbucks online store experience somewhat meaningless.
Third, the rich consumption can not stay for a long time, staying in the store is not how to spend
Starbucks has a rule when it comes to training employees called "Just say yes." It’s part of this “never refuse” to talk to the elder brother who talked about the above mentioned.
In China, this rule has caused Starbucks “partners” to suffer some additional troubles. Some stores are too close to the elderly community and are regarded as "chess and cards room" and "matching corners." The old people took the mug to pick up a small cup of the cheapest American style, so stay for one afternoon.
Even so, Starbucks does not want to drive them away. You can find from a lot of travel notes and Raiders that Starbucks is the only store that really allows you to come in and not consume, compared to rivals such as Costa and Pacific Coffee.
Opening a café is not a charity, so letting this "third space" be like a cloud, the premise of a long-lasting redemption is that it can contribute to revenue steadily. In other words, there must be enough people to complete the consumption at the store.
However, Starbucks allows some customers to occupy seats for a long time at a very low cost, which undoubtedly affects the “turnover rate”. Although it can enrich the facade during non-golden periods, it may cause some people who would like to enter the store to be discouraged during the peak period. .
For a long time, there have been many relaxing babies, friends gathering, lovers getting along, bargaining, etc. Too many stories are staged in Starbucks venues.
Starbucks entered China in 1999 as the "third space" role until now less than 20 years, replacing the previous "American fast food restaurants" undertaken by McDonald's and KFC.
The Chinese people used to be very strange to the "third space" function of Starbucks, but soon learned how to use it.
In addition to the old people, Starbucks is also a good fit for students who are studying in the study room, as well as freelancers who don't want to go to nine to five.
There may be very few company teams that are willing to use cafes as office locations for a long time, but entrepreneurs and investors are very good at talking in cafes. This demand was so strong 3-4 years ago that it set up a little bit of entrepreneurial cafes.
But the gust of wind quickly blew, and many of the cafes that were built beyond demand were turned off. The economy shows signs of partial coldness. Whether it is online entrepreneurship or the real economy, fewer and fewer people can continue to "wave" outside the freelance, and they have returned to the grid.
When Starbucks' front door Beijing Fang flagship store opened, Starbucks China CEO Cai Dejun hoped that Starbucks could become an all-weather space for customers to "drink from morning to evening":
"Come for a cup of coffee in the morning, a cup of tea in the afternoon, and a bar party in the evening."
However, the Beijing Fang flagship store has now become a tourist attraction, even in the daytime of the working day, the queue of people can often reach 20 or 30 people. At the end of the team, it takes about half an hour to enter. Most people who can't wait, just look at the location.
To be honest, there are too many people in the world who have to work normally. They don't have the time and energy to have the privilege of staying in the "third space" for a long time.
Waiting for meals, holidays, attractions, airports, etc., where people are rushing to spend, and crowds are crowded, Starbucks' proud service experience will be greatly reduced, and even the reception capacity will be saturated.
Starbucks's take-off in the Chinese market began in the past 3-4 years. The company defines China as the most important market outside the US, and some innovative products and formats are also the world's first in China.
Under this circumstance, one thing that people may overlook is that the limelight of take-away coffee gradually overshadows the consumption of coffee under the line, which happens in the last 1-2 years. Therefore, Starbucks’s profit margin in China has declined for the first time in years, and it is happening now.
Fourth, do takeaway is not the focus, or to improve the physical store
Some people from the cooperation between Starbucks and Ali will conclude that Starbucks has shifted some of its development focus to takeaway. However, the Hangtong News Agency believes that Starbucks fundamentally hopes to further improve and develop, and it is still an offline experience with its long-term advantages.
As for the official introduction of take-away, one is to crowd out the unofficial purchasing group, to prevent the re-enactment of even the coffee from the purchase to the independent brand, one is to divert the crowded crowd at the checkout during the peak hours, so that more potential customers have Opportunity to place an order.
We can also choose Shanghai Baking Workshop from Starbucks, which opened in December last year, to see what experience Ali has brought to Starbucks physical storefront. In addition to coffee, this store mainly sells a variety of breads and snacks.
There is no price tag next to these snacks - you can check the price of all baked products by turning on the "Sweep" of the mobile phone Taobao. With the AR AR function, customers can open the in-store map guide and explore every detail of the coffee bar and brewing utensils even if they are not accompanied by the staff.
In addition, after paying with the Alipay scan code, you can "sit" and wait for the notice in the workshop. After the coffee is made, the Alipay App will push a meal reminder.
The Hangtong News Agency originally expected that the new retail mid-station offered by Ali will be opened in the nationwide stores to upgrade the original ordering, cash register, CRM and other systems; at the same time, the Star Card (Membership Card) can be Enter Alipay's card package, completely replacing Starbucks own app.
However, these more logical cooperation contents are not included in the cooperation project disclosed this time. Perhaps this is because the current cooperation is only the beginning, and with such a partnership, the follow-up can be more fully connected.
With the “self-service” provided by mobile phones, the process of customers waiting in the physical store, and the communication with Starbucks clerk and the process of participating in the coffee course can be “mass production” to a certain extent, because not everyone needs a live clerk to accompany them. It can also greatly save the manpower expenditure of physical stores.
The use of mobile phones to complete the order, reminding such functions on the mobile phone when taking a meal, is more conducive to diverting customers during peak hours, and the role and delivery is the same. At McDonald's and KFC, mobile phone ordering applications can already see very obvious results.
As for the Star Club membership system, if it can be exchanged with Ali's "naughty value", it will make some customers who are obsessed with the Starbucks brand stick to the Starbucks delivery business.
The rules for the second year of the elimination of Star Cards are very “exciting” among many chain catering companies in China, and it is urgent to use Ali's mature membership system to improve.
Starbucks has not been acquired by Chinese companies as its McDonald's and KFC. Therefore, Starbucks' localization measures in China will certainly be there, but some core temperament and thinking will not change. This includes insisting on taking the offline as the main position.
Indeed, drinking coffee and sending coffee in the store has shown a trend of change. However, the main group of people drinking coffee behind this is still the same group of people, with the company staff as the main force, and there is no obvious shrinkage.
Even if this is a kind of "demotion downgrade", they will not give the cottage any chance - because the experience that has been enjoyed is no longer able to go back. The basic premise that Ruisheng can get growth is that their quality is at least not significantly different from Starbucks; and the cottage coffee does not get the market.
From this perspective, the opportunity always exists for Starbucks.
Perhaps the only thing Starbucks China can do is to wait slowly, waiting for more people in China to afford Starbucks and treat it as the norm of life; waiting for Starbucks to become like McDonald's and KFC. China’s brand that has achieved great success has entered the hearts of more Chinese people.
Follow Me
Link:Tenco
——END——
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