Starbucks is trying something new in China, where tomorrow it opens its biggest and most hi-tech store ever. Over two floors, Starbucks’ Shanghai Roastery is the size of a soccer field.
GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba video.
Starbucks wants you to be glued to your phone at this experimental new store. It has partnered with Alibaba, China’s online shopping titan, to make visits interactive.
As soon as someone walks in the door, a page pops up on their phones if they have Alibaba’s Taobao app installed. It shows a map of the huge store:
GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba video.
And the menu of teas and coffees appears too.
GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba video.
Elsewhere in the Roastery – only the second such store outside of Starbucks’ native Seattle – Alibaba has brewed up some augmented reality (AR) wizardry to help visitors understand what’s going on.
You can point your phone at the copper casks to see animations that detail what’s happening to the coffee beans in there.
GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba video.
The AR explainers include the teas on offer as well.
GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba video.
Starbucks is also giving Alibaba users a special Shanghai Roastery photo filter that they can share with buddies over social media.
GIF by Tech in Asia, from Alibaba video.
And this being China, the world’s biggest market for mobile payments, you can of course pay for your drinks and food with your phone – using either Alibaba’s Alipay or Tencent’s messaging app WeChat. That’s the case in any China-based Starbucks.
China is Starbucks’ fastest-growing market, which is why it’s opening a new store there every 15 hours, according to the company. It now has 27,000 locations worldwide – 3,000 of which are in China, with 600 in Shanghai alone.
More hot trends from China:
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- Alibaba smashes record as Singles Day shopping spree hits $25b
This post Starbucks wants you to be glued to your phone in its experimental, hi-tech roastery appeared first on Tech in Asia.
from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/starbucks-alibaba-hi-tech-roastery-china
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