Changes Ahead For Starbucks

By Thibault Mathieu

Starbucks for sometime has been known as the largest coffeehouse company in the world. Starbucks did not get to where they are today by sitting back and just letting customers find them and purchase a coffee. With that said, Starbucks is always looking for ways to improve upon their coffee market hold. What more can a coffeehouse offer?

Starbucks announce they will be adding beer, wine, and evening snacks to thousands of cafes, widening lunch offerings, and rolling out mobile ordering. These additions should help widen the gap between Starbucks and the rest of the group.

Starbucks expects to double its US food revenue to over $4 billion with the expansion of food choices. With 11,900 cafes in the United States, Starbucks is expect to bring beer and wine to nearly 3,000 of those cafes. This maneuver projects to bring in an additional $1 billion in new sales.

Maybe most importantly about Starbucks shake up is the addition of mobile ordering and payment system. Many companies at the height of the technology boom are turning to alternative methods of ordering food or merchandise. With many security breaches and credit card hackers out there, people are looking for alternate methods of payment. Some companies have turned to Apple Pay, eWallet, and some friends will transfer money through PayPal or Venmo. Starbucks has tackled both these obstacles. It’s unclear how Starbucks will adopt mobile ordering and its new payment system but it should function very similar to the aforementioned methods.

Starbucks serves approximately 70 million customers worldwide across 21,000 shops. Such changes will have a huge affect on their business longterm. According to some, its projected that during the fiscal year of 2019, Starbucks will generate revenue in the neighborhood of $30 billion. An astonishing number to think of considering during 2014′s fiscal year, Starbucks produced revenue of $16 billion. Starbucks will have a lot of work ahead of them to implement such changes but it seems worth it in the long run.