For over two decades, Starbucks has offered its products from locations in Target stores, for shoppers who need a pick me up while browsing the retail giant. Since 2003 a Starbucks coffee ship was incorporated into almost all new Target store locations, and when an older store was remodeled, the remodel often included a Starbucks coffee shop worked into the design.

For retailers such as Target, Kroger (KR) , Hy-Vee, and many others, the ability to operate a mini coffee kiosk, or micro-coffee shop, run by the retailer, with a royalty or percentage kicked back to Starbucks, has been a tremendous asset, both encouraging shoppers to enter the store and browse, as well as offering an additional revenue stream.

However Chief Starbucks Marketing Officer Brady Brewer has noted one shortfall of this model was that the coffee shop experience was not always consistent from store to store. Now the company is implementing changes designed to standardize the experience at all of these locations, and make them on par with experiences at the rest of the standalone franchise and corporate locations across the country.

One difference was that users of the micro-locations inside of retailers were purchasing their coffees using the point of sale system of the store they resided in, rather than Starbuck’s system. This mean users of Starbucks’ loyalty program, which offered benefits from free refills, to birthday gifts for registered users, to the accumulation of Starbucks “Stars” which could be redeemed for free products, were unable to use their rewards points, or use the Starbucks app to purchase coffee.

This had been a sore point for customers who wanted to redeem a free gift, or get their birthday present while shopping inside the retailers. That is now set to change.

At Starbucks Investor Day on Sept. 13 in Seattle, Brewer announced that Starbucks is about to roll out a new program called Starbucks connect, which would allow customers at all licensed locations to access their rewards benefits.

Brewer said, “Both rewards and mobile ordering have become key to the business in recent years, with accelerated growth during the pandemic.”

So now customers at retailers like Target, Kroger, Hy-Vee, and other retailers will be able to get the full Starbucks experience, as they engage in their retail shopping.

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