"Certum service" allows customers to make orders using applications before going to stores, and "cagong people" study or work inside stores because they can use socket outlets and free Wi-Fi. These are the landscapes that Starbucks has changed since it will be its 20th year in South Korea next month.

▲ Starbuck`s logo

Starbucks in South Korea has grown steadily over the past 20 years, ranking fifth in the global sales after the United States, China, Canada, and Japan. Some of the reasons why Starbucks succeeded in South Korea are advanced strategy, 'strategy to accommodate the people and strategy to localize.

Its strategy to introduce services that meet Koreans' tastes and preferences quickly is also effective. The siren order is said to be aimed at the quick culture of Koreans. The solution is to reduce customers who go to other coffee shops after looking at long lines in rush hours. Customers choose menus and stores to order from the applications and pay for them. Customers can pick up their ordered drinks as soon as they arrive at the store.

▲ Starbucks in a shape of Korean traditional ˝Hanok˝

Another strategy of Starbucks is to accommodate long-stay customers in stores. Customers who sit for hours are generally shunned because their sales increase only when their turnover is high. But Starbucks has created an environment where customers can stay for a long time. It introduced free Wi-Fi service in stores for the first time in Korea and created socket-outlets throughout stores. As such, it has preempted the market for coffee shops by absorbing "cagong people" who enjoy studying at cafes as its customers.

▲ People studying, spending time in Starbucks

Starbucks is doing well because of the growing atmosphere in South Korea recently as what Yoo Seung-ho, said, who is a professor of video culture at Kangwon National University, who wrote "Star Bugs," an analysis of Starbucks' success in Korea. Korea has no "small" competitiveness, like in Italy, in which cafes are permeated with the way of life or baristas who worry about their own skills.

2019.06.09 Lee Hyowon