Nikki Baird

Starbucks a Great Testing Ground for Grocery Sales

August 20, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
When Starbucks introduces a product into grocery stores it already knows whether the item can generate repeat purchases because it has first tested those items in its own stores. Does Starbucks have an advantage over other food and beverage brands when it comes to new product launches in grocery stores?      [more...]

You know, to me the news here isn't that Starbucks has an opportunity to test in its own stores before pushing out to mass retail. It's the last couple of paragraphs of the article - that Starbucks is revamping its loyalty program to better integrate and recognize product purchases wherever they happen. I don't know exactly how they plan to do that - I have to imagine mobile will be involved somehow - but this is yet another place where retailers are becoming disintermediated by brands. More and more brands are bypassing retailers to reach consumers directly through the products themselves - with QR codes on the packaging as just one example. If retailers want to maintain the upper hand, they better find a way to sit on top of all these brand initiatives, offering to facilitate points collection or reporting on behalf of the consumer - or their own loyalty programs may become much less relevant than they already are.