Good news from Starbucks fans in the United States! Your favorite coffee shop just came up with a new idea, in their attempt to deal with slowing sales: its own Visa card.
According to CNN Money, it acts like a regular rewards card, but you can acquire points even if you’re using to buy stuff from outside the chain’s shops.
A predictable move
The new Starbucks Rewards Visa Card was announced this Thursday and it’s the result of a collaboration with JPMorgan Chase. It doesn’t come as a surprise though, as the coffee shop revealed back in 2017 that a new co-branded card will be released in the near future.
The card can be used at any store that accepts Visa, allowing customers to earn points that can eventually be redeemed for drinks and snacks at over 8,000 Starbucks shops across the United States. Besides this, cardholders have the possibility to become members of the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program!
People who want to apply for the card will receive the physical piece within 7-10 days after getting approved, while a digital version of the card will also be accessible through the mobile app. As for the annual fee, it’s $49.
They don’t plan to stop here!
Later this year, Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase will also launch a co-branded prepaid debit card, in an attempt to attract customers with a poor credit history.
Apparently, investors are constantly after strategies of boosting sales, since the company is not doing that good, from a financial point of view. In the United States, at least, revenue growth is slowing, as in the fourth quarter of 2017 sales rose with just 2%, which was below what analysts were expecting.
During a conference with analysts, CEO Kevin Johnson revealed that the demand for Starbucks’ limited-time holiday beverages, as well as gift cards and other types of merchandise “did not resonate with our customers as planned.”
Besides this, the company is struggling to attract new customers. It looks like its same-store sales growth in the US was caused just from customers spending more, as the number of actual transactions in the fourth quarter remained flat.
