Rewards: Starbucks announces MyStarbucks changes

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) recently hosted its 25^th Annual Meeting of Shareholders, with more than 3,300 partners, shareholders, invited guests and board members in attendance.

Howard Schultz, chairman and ceo of Starbucks, marked his last Annual Meeting of Shareholders in his current capacity of ceo and honored the accomplishments of the company in delivering record financial results, including approximately 18,000% in shareholder returns since the company’s Initial Public Offering 25 years ago, and more than $10 billion in cash to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases over the past five years alone.

What was really interesting from a rewards and loyalty perspective was news that Starbucks will be rolling our the expansion of its Mobile Order & Pay platform to give customers more options to order their favorite Starbucks beverage while on the go, by leveraging its skill for Amazon Alexa announced earlier this year.

Now, with the planned integration of Amazon Alexa and Ford vehicles later this year, Starbucks customers with a Ford car equipped with SYNC 3 will be able to order their favorite Starbucks beverage on the go by saying, “Alexa, ask Starbucks to start my order.”

Starbucks also shared more details on the expansion of My Starbucks® barista, now available to more than 100,000 customers across the U.S. Powered by groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence for the Starbucks Mobile App, customers can now place their orders via voice command or messaging interface, delivering speed and convenience. Starbucks continues to deliver innovation that enhances customer loyalty and engagement and further extends the accessibility of the Starbucks® Mobile App. The My Starbucks® barista is currently rolling out to iOS customers with Android™ users being added in subsequent releases.

In other news, the Starbucks digital flywheel continues to gain momentum with the launch of true one-to-one personalization. While still early in the evolution of this service, Starbucks has delivered personalized offers to customers directly on the front of the screen of the mobile app, including the complete rollout of suggested selling and recommendations. Total Starbucks Rewards member spend is up over 20 percent versus last year, driven by member growth and higher spend per member, reflecting a more engaged member base that takes advantage of Mobile Order and Pay and personalized marketing offers and recommendations.

Starbucks also provided more detail on the important role that social gifting is playing in the overall customer experience. With the introduction of the Outlook add-in, customers can gift a favorite beverage to friends, colleagues and loved ones through Microsoft Outlook. Starbucks also unveiled the availability of gifting through Apple’s Messages app with Apple Pay beginning in April, expanding the platform and offering customers new ways to share the Starbucks Experience.

The key takeaway? No rest for the brand.

In the words of Howard Schultz:

“Every hour of every day, someone somewhere is walking into one of our 26,000 Starbucks stores in 75 countries around the world. As we approach our 25^th year as a publicly traded company, the Starbucks brand is as relevant today as it has ever been, driven by the 330,000 people who proudly wear the green apron…And yet, we are still in the early stages of growth as we strive to meet our highest growth aspirations for the company.”

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