Starbucks to test-run coffee delivery service in S. Korea

Starbucks Coffee Korea will test-run coffee deliveries using the company’s mobile app and open its new delivery-only outlet at Yeoksam E-mart branch in Gangnam, Seoul on Nov. 27.

The tests would determine ways to maintain the same quality of its beverages and food items after delivery.

There would be 60 drinks, 40 food items, and 50 kinds of merchandise to be offered in the service.

The 100-square-meter store will act as a space for making drinks and prepare food, storing merchandise, and waiting area.

It will also have space for delivery workers to wait to pick up the orders, but it will not be open to general customers, the company added.

Starbucks will open a second delivery-only outlet dubbed the Starlit Daechi branch, also in Gangnam, in mid-December.

The company would use the branches to get feedback and data for basing future operations of the service.

Minimum order of 15,000 won is required per delivery, with an additional 3,000 won delivery fee, which should be within 1.5 kilometers of the outlet.

Starbucks is partnering with delivery agency Barogo for the service.
South Korea will be the 16th country to offer Starbucks delivery.

The market size of specialist coffee and tea shops in South Korea was $4.77 billion in 2019, ranking as the 3rd largest market globally, according to Euromonitor International Korea.

Starbucks has been slowly moving towards the mass segment, which means its image would not suffer by using delivery service, said Kim Young-mi, a research analyst at Euromonitor International Korea.