Starbucks! a success in China through Tmall

Starbucks has enjoyed great success in China, but moving their coffee experience over to Tmall (their first global e-store) was a huge challenge.

Starbucks provides a great case study of how to enter and succeed in China.  Starting their first store when the idea of coffee culture was very much a ‘foreign concept’, the brand put in the ‘hard yards’ to educate local consumers, and provide a consistent experience through their increasing number of stores.

When the market started to get more competitive, Starbucks placed further emphasis on localizing their menu offer and retail environment.   This allowed the brand to continue the lead the category, despite the arrival of Costa Coffee and Hong Kong’s popular chain, Pacific Coffee.

As part of this effort, Starbucks has more recently offered ‘Starbucks Reserve’ to the market to capture increasing connoisseurship, built in-part from their earlier success.   This has included innovative retail concepts, including a flagship store in Western city Chengdu – that fuses Starbucks’ visual identity with the design of a local teahouse.

Launched in December last year, Starbucks’ Tmall store became the most popular on the B2C site’s Food and Beverage brands – amassing 300,000 users in a little over two months.

Starbucks communicated the co-brand masterfully to create a genuine ‘fourth space” for their coffee fans.  A winning component: how elements of the physical store environment were used as ‘prompts’ to the digital Tmall store.   Also Starbucks used dynamic design ideas to to create buzz and drive traffic during the Christmas season in China – an increasingly relevant holiday for the Starbucks’ faithful.  Throughout the campaign, Starbucks created levels of personalization and convenience that made use of their Tmall platform seamless and beneficial.