Starbucks Customers Can Earn Loyalty Points outside Cafes

Starbucks is offering free stuff even if you don’t go to a Starbucks store. The world’s largest coffee chain is now extending its loyalty card program to purchases made in groceries. The move comes in time when the loyalty card industry continues to boom across the globe as consumers make purchases more on incentives from favorite brands and less on brand familiarity.

Starting May, consumers who buy a bag of specially-labeled Starbucks whole bean or ground packaged coffee at the club store, grocery store or drug store will earn Starbucks Rewards card points, which can be used to earn a free cup of coffee or a muffin at a Starbucks store.

The coffee chain hopes to expand the program to include other grocery products by fall. Starting next month, customers can earn Starbucks Rewards points with every purchase at Teavana tea shops, which is a chain that Starbucks recently acquired.

Starbucks is doing something that no other consumer brand has done before and that is giving loyalty points for brand products bought outside Starbucks stores. The My Starbucks Rewards is now on its third year and has 6 million members. Around 80,000 new members are added each week.

Providing loyalty points program at the grocery store is not an easy task for Starbucks. After making the grocery store purchase of the Starbucks coffee, the customer must go online and enter the special code from the bag to get the corresponding points.

Members of the loyalty program get one star for buying the coffee at the grocery store. They need 12 stars to get free food or beverage item at a Starbucks store. The new move is a way to keep customers loyal to the brand. It makes consumers to remain loyal with the brand even when they’re not at a Starbucks store.