starbucks announces starbucks odyssey a loyalty program and nft community built on the polygon blockchain launching broadly sometime in 2023 sarah perez techcrunch
Starbucks details its blockchain-based loyalty platform and NFT community, Starbucks Odyssey | whatsapp communitiespereztechcrunch
Starbucks details its blockchain-based loyalty platform and NFT community, Starbucks Odyssey
Image Credits: Starbucks
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Starbucks is today officially introducing Starbucks Odyssey, launching later this year — the coffee chain’s first foray into building with web3 technology. The new experience combines the company’s successful Starbucks Rewards loyalty program with an NFT platform, allowing its customers to both earn and purchase digital assets that unlock exclusive experiences and rewards.
The company had earlier teased its web3 plans to investors, saying it believed this new experience would build on the current Starbucks Rewards model where customers today earn “stars” which can be exchanged for perks, like free drinks. It envisions Starbucks Odyssey as a way for its most loyal customers to earn a broader set of rewards while also building community.
To develop the project, Starbucks brought in Adam Brotman, the architect of its Mobile Order & Pay system and the Starbucks app, to help serve as a special advisor. Now the co-founder of Forum3, a web3 loyalty startup, Brotman’s team worked on Starbucks Odyssey alongside the Seattle coffee chain’s own marketing, loyalty and technology teams.
While Starbucks had been investigating blockchain technologies for a couple of years, it has only been involved in this particular project for around six months, Starbucks CMO Brady Brewer told TechCrunch. He says the company wanted to invest in this area, but not as a “stunt” side project, as many companies are doing. Rather, it wanted to find a way to use the technology to enhance its business and expand its existing loyalty program.
It opted to make NFTs the passes that allow access to this digital community, but it’s intentionally obscuring the nature of the technology underpinning the experience in order to bring in more consumers — including non-technical people — to the web3 platform.
“It happens to be built on blockchain and web3 technologies, but the customer — to be honest — may very well not even know that what they’re doing is interacting with blockchain technology. It’s just the enabler,” Brewer explains.
To engage with the Starbucks Odyssey experience, Starbucks Rewards members will log in to the web app using their existing loyalty program credentials.
Once there, they’ll be able to engage with various activities, which Starbucks called “journeys” — like playing interactive games or taking on challenges designed to deepen their knowledge of the Starbucks brand or coffee in general. As they complete these journeys, members can collect early digital collectibles in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Starbucks Odyssey, however, does away with the tech lingo and calls these NFT collectibles “journey stamps” instead.
Additionally, a set of limited-edition NFTs will be available to purchase in the Starbucks Odyessy web app, which also works on mobile devices. Though hosted on the Polygon blockchain, these NFTs will be bought using a credit or debit card — a crypto wallet is not required. The company believes this will make it easier for consumers to engage with the web3 experience by lowering the barrier to entry. It also won’t complicate consumers’ transactions with things like “gas fees,” preferring to offer a bundled price.
The company is not yet ready to share what its NFTs will cost or how many will be available at launch, saying these are decisions that are still being ironed out.
However, the various “stamps” (NFTs) will include a point value based on their rarity and can be bought or sold among Starbucks Odyessy members in the marketplace, with the ownership secured on the blockchain. The artwork on the NFTs is being co-created by Starbucks and outside artists, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the limited-edition collectibles will be donated to support causes chosen by Starbucks employees and customers.
By collecting the stamps, members will gain points that can unlock exclusive benefits.
These perks go beyond those you can earn with a traditional Starbucks Rewards account and its “stars.” While today, members can earn things like free coffee, free food or select merchandise, the points earned in Starbucks Odyessy will translate into experiences and other benefits.
On the lower end, that could be a virtual espresso martini-making class or access to unique merchandise and artist collaborations. As you gain more points, you may earn invites to special events hosted at Starbucks Reserve Roasteries, or even earn a trip to the Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia coffee farm in Costa Rica. It’s expected the very largest perks will be reserved for those who purchase NFTs, though lesser versions may be offered to those who earn their way up.
For instance, a paid NFT could offer the full travel package and farm tour, while an earned NFT could offer the tour alone with flights and hotels left up to the user. Starbucks hasn’t made any formal decisions on this front, however.
But what the company can say is that it wants to deeply integrate the program with its existing loyalty rewards, beyond simply using the same user account credentials for both programs.
Brewer says Starbucks is already imagining how some of the activities that earn NFTs will be connected to real-world Starbucks purchases, for instance.
In Odyssey, users earn NFTs by doing challenges, which might also include a real-world activity like “try three things on the espresso menu.” This would require the user to show their barcode at checkout — as they would if earning stars — to have their transaction counted toward the Starbuck Odyssey challenge. The company is still determining what mix of games, challenges and quests it will include at launch.
“But we’ll have experiences that do link directly to customers’ behavior in our stores,” Brewer stresses. Most importantly, the company wants to make gaining NFTs something anyone can do — not just those with money to blow on digital collectibles, as is often the case with current NFT communities, which price out the average user.
“There will be a lot of ways for people to earn [rewards] without having to spend a lot of money,” says Brewer. “We want to make this super easy and accessible. There will be plenty of everyday experiences customers can earn like virtual classes or access to limited edition merchandise, for instance. “The range of experiences will be quite vast and very accessible,” he adds.
Starbucks says it explored all the different blockchains for the project but landed on the “proof-of-stake” blockchain technology built by Polygon for this effort because it uses less energy than first-generation “proof-of-work” blockchains, which is more in line with its conversation goals.
The idea to enter into the world of web3 makes sense for a company known for taking advantage of emerging technologies and making them more approachable and easy for consumers to access. In years past, Starbucks introduced Wi-Fi in its stores to encourage customers to spend more time during visits. It also pushed the idea of mobile wallets long before Apple Pay became ubiquitous. And it made mobile ordering the norm well ahead of the COVID pandemic, when other restaurant chains picked it up.
But one criticism leveraged against many traditional businesses when they enter the web3 market is that they’re approaching it as a marketing stunt, not a real endeavor. Starbucks, of course, argues that’s not the case here — but only time will tell how serious its interest may be.
“We’re bullish on the future of these technologies enabling experiences that were not possible before,” Brewer claims. The intention is to be flexible and move with the customers as the web3 market changes, he explains. “It’s really important that we’re looking at it for the long-term,” he continues. “But, given that we’re plugging it into our industry-leading, massive scale rewards program — we’re committed,” he says.
The company says its web3 platform will open its waitlist (waitlist.starbucks.com) on September 12 and will launch later in the year. It will remove the waitlist and open the platform more broadly sometime next year.
Starbucks Odyssey Blend
Crafted from beans sourced from Peru, Rwanda and West Java, and pays tribute to the innovative and responsible ways farmers in the region grow, cultivate and process coffee.
Starbucks introduces its newest blend of whole bean coffee, Starbucks Odyssey Blend, to stores across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Starbucks is focused on a more sustainable future for the coffee industry and continuing support for coffee farmers and their communities, Starbucks Odyssey Blend was created to highlight this work and to celebrate coffee, people, and planet.
Starbucks Odyssey Blend is crafted from beans sourced from West Java, Rwanda and Peru, all specifically chosen for how they embody the key pillars of coffee, people and planet, as well the innovative and responsible ways in which the farmers in the region grow, cultivate and process coffee.
- Coffee: Starbucks history is rich in West Java, a region that represents the new frontier of growing coffee in Indonesia where farmers are delivering high-quality beans with new, unique flavors while also prioritising the conservation of coffee.
- People: Starbucks Farmer Support Center in Kigali, Rwanda is working to support farmers with sustainable farming practices to improve their quality and yield while also helping to reduce their carbon impact on the environment. Starbucks has invested in new wet mills to help reduce water usage in green coffee processing by up to 80%, and Rwanda is the first country to join the Sustainable Coffee Challenge, a global industry coalition led by Conservation International, with the goal of making coffee the world’s first sustainable agricultural product.
- Planet: Starbucks has been offering coffee from Peru since 1971. Most recently Starbucks is working with farmers in the northern region to further refine the coffee quality and increase farm productivity, including reducing water consumption and the carbon footprint from green coffee processing.
Following on from Starbucks 50th Anniversary last year, this is our love letter to coffee. The three distinct origins that make up Odyssey Blend were chosen for the trailblazing way the coffee was grown, cultivated, and processed. The three coffees create a blend that charts a new path. This is a complex medium roast that displays expressive citrus notes of tangerine zest, a sweet and syrupy body and a wild-honey floral finish.
Odyssey Blend contains 100% arabica coffee and is responsibly sourced – according to Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices. Starbucks C.A.F.E. Practices has given farmers the opportunity to learn technical advice and skills that allow them to thrive and own all aspects of coffee farming from start to finish. They are leading the way in sustainability as they take care of the land and nature.
This work forms part of Starbucks aspiration to become resource-positive and give more than we take from the planet in every aspect of our business – including coffee.