Starbucks Is Adding a Cutting-Edge New Perk to Its Rewards Program
The coffee giant is toying with NFTs this time.
Your Starbucks habit isn't completely for nothing. The Seattle-based coffee giant boasts a rewards program that gets you free drinks, food, and now...NFTs?
Starbucks Chief Marketing Officer Brady Brewer first announced plans to introduce NFTs to its loyalty rewards program in May.
"Emerging technologies associated with what is commonly called 'Web3' now enable this aspiration in a way that extends who Starbucks has always been at our core," Starbucks said in a blog post. "Web3 refers to many things in the blockchain space, but the particular technology that has captured our imagination is NFTs (non-fungible tokens)."
Now, it looks like those NFTs will be rolling out next month, Food & Wine reports. Starbucks apparently weaved in the announcement date during its most recent earnings call.
"We have been working on a very exciting new digital initiative that builds on our existing industry-leading digital platform in innovative new ways all centered around coffee and, most importantly, loyalty that we will reveal at Investor Day," CEO Howard Schultz said.
According to Schultz himself, the company plans to build on its current Starbucks Rewards engagement model, integrating it with branded digital collectibles as a "reward and community-building element." To translate, that could mean purchasing NFTs could result in customer rewards, or vice versa, NFTs could be a reward in and of themselves.