Unlike in the US, Starbucks Korea had long resisted the allure of delivery services, believing that the essence and heritage of their brand rested in the face-to-face interactions within their brick-and-mortar stores.
They feared that venturing into delivery might dilute the very core of the rich brand experience.
We conducted comprehensive customer research to convincingly demonstrate to the top management that this belief is far from accurate. As a result, with leadership’s full support, we embarked on the Starbucks Delivers store and app project.
The delivery service within the Starbucks App was newly launched, featuring improved functionalities such as the payment system and real-time delivery status, based on Voice of Customer feedback.
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Home
Collecting Personal Info.
Choose Pick-up Location
Browse Menu
Product Detail
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Order Summary
Collecting Personal Info.
Receive Order
Order Completed
Review Order
Designed and launched a comprehensive delivery program for five Starbucks stores
The work includes opening of two delivery-only stores, introducing new packaging for deliveries,
and initiating a new marketing campaign featuring analog, hand-written notes.
Review Order
New Package Design for Delivery
Bring Analogue Touch
Designed and opened two pilot delivery-only stores
at the heart of Seoul's promising districts
Introduced a new packaging system for
delivery only products
Adapt hand-written notes from Starbucks store partners, offering analog feel, and instagrammable moments
After launching the online delivery service, we gathered Voice of Customer (VOC) feedback to understand how users feel about the service and to identify their suggestions for improvement.
Based on this data, we refined the app's usability and proposed gradual improvements to be implemented directly by Starbucks Korea's internal digital service team.
In addition to evaluating the service’s usability, we also assessed its impact on revenue. The demand for Starbucks' on-demand delivery service exceeded expectations, prompting plans to expand the service to 40 more stores by the first quarter of 2022.
Based on the 'Alpha App Moderated Study' conducted by SpreeAI in August 2024,
two major challenges emerged.
First, users experienced difficulties during the photo capture process. Additionally, while users appreciated
the try-on image, they expressed a desire for the ability to make their own adjustments to the photo.
The Starbucks App is highly personalized compared to competitors, but customers often complain about its excessive use of English.
Starbucks Korea App displays few menu items compared to Starbucks U.S., resulting in more scrolling; incosistency in the product image backgrounds.
Two biggest customer complaints during delivery services are the difficulty in checking“real-time delivery status” and the inability to place additional orders after the initial order.
We picked 5 sites – 3 existing Starbucks stores in Seoul’s bustling business districts and 2 new delivery-only formats in the Gangnam district.
As a winning on-demand product strategy, we introduced a selection of beverages, food, and merchandise that were exclusively available through our on-demand delivery service.
The biggest takeaway from this project for me was understanding how a ‘digital experience’ can enhance the ‘physical experience.’ While on-demand services were common among competitors, Starbucks Korea was initially resistant to compromising the value of the ‘physical experience,’ where staff personally deliver warm greetings and coffee to customers in-store. However, as modern consumers increasingly demanded the convenience of having coffee anytime and anywhere, even without visiting the store, this demand was something we couldn’t ignore.
By developing exclusive packages for the ‘on-demand’ service and assessing the usability of the digital experience, it became clear that we were meeting customers’ expectations for a modern, evolved version of Starbucks.
Just as people adapt to their environment and evolve over time, a brand must also organically adjust to meet these changing needs.
