New social commerce function launched by Starbucks

Starbucks just launched a new social commerce function for co-workers to order coffee together through its mini program.

In China it’s common for co-workers to order take-away drinks together as afternoon tea. Usually one person will collect everyone’s order and order it together on one phone, then manually calculate and collect the bill from each person. Sometimes it’s easy to make mistakes, especially if someone orders customized drinks.

With this new function, you can just send one link in WeChat group and ask all co-workers to order it on each one’s own phone. The bill is calculated automatically and sent through “Group split bill (群收款)” on WeChat.

Starbucks has been pushing digitalization these 2 years in China, from the launch of “Starbucks Now” (order on the phone and collect in store), to the partnership with Ele.me on take-away services, and “Contactless” delivery during COVID-19. I remember 2 years ago I complained with my friends about Starbucks App with too many flaws. But now I’m glad to see that they really have improved a lot and are getting more localized, innovative and customer-oriented!