Incoming Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol might goal cellular app


Cellular order and Uber Eats and Doordash supply decide up space at Starbucks espresso store, Queens, New York. 

Lindsey Nicholson | UCG | Common Photographs Group | Getty Photographs

It is develop into a well-recognized sight at Starbucks cafes: a counter crowded with cellular orders, annoyed prospects ready for the drinks they ordered and overwhelmed baristas attempting to maintain up with all of it.

Fixing that drawback will probably high incoming CEO Brian Niccol’s checklist of duties to show across the struggling espresso big when he steps into the position on Sept. 9.

Buyers and executives alike have pointed to operational points as one motive the chain’s gross sales have lagged in current quarters. Different culprits for its current same-store gross sales declines embody a weakening client, boycotts and the deterioration of the Starbucks model.

Former CEO Howard Schultz, who lacks a proper position with the corporate however stays concerned, has additionally pointed the finger on the cellular app. He mentioned it has develop into “the most important Achilles heel for Starbucks,” on an episode of the “Acquired” podcast in June.

Cellular orders account for roughly one-third of Starbucks’ whole gross sales, and are typically extra difficult. Whereas add-ons like chilly foam or syrups are extra worthwhile for Starbucks, they have a tendency to take up extra of baristas’ time, irritating each them and prospects.

“I agree with Howard Schultz,” mentioned Robert Byrne, senior director of client analysis for Technomic, a restaurant market analysis agency. “This isn’t within the knowledge — that is within the retailer. That is the place the problem lies.”

Catching as much as cellular progress

In late April, the present CEO Laxman Narasimhan mentioned the corporate was struggling to satisfy demand within the morning — and scaring away some prospects with lengthy wait instances.

Schultz mentioned he skilled the issue himself when he visited a Chicago location at 8 a.m.

“Everybody reveals up, and impulsively we received a mosh pit, and that is not Starbucks,” Schultz mentioned on the “Acquired” episode.

Making cellular orders extra environment friendly is without doubt one of the key methods Niccol can scale back crowding at Starbucks.

When Schultz was constructing Starbucks to develop into the espresso behemoth it’s at the moment, he positioned it as a “third place” between work and residential. Since then, the chain has misplaced that popularity as extra prospects lean on the comfort of cellular ordering and like to not linger at its cafes.

“As a result of it is a beverage, and since I am often consuming it within the automobile or on the go, it must be extremely handy,” Byrne mentioned.

However Starbucks additionally did not make vital changes to its operations to anticipate that shift in client conduct.

In 2017, Schultz stepped down as CEO for the second time, handing the reins to Kevin Johnson. Previous to becoming a member of the espresso chain as its chief working officer, Johnson served as chief government of Juniper Networks, a tech firm. Underneath his management, Starbucks invested in expertise and saved rising digital gross sales, however restaurant operations have been already struggling when he left the corporate.

Schultz stepped again in as interim CEO when Johnson retired in 2022.

“The corporate didn’t do job of anticipating the technological refinements that wanted to be put in place to keep away from what was occurring. … The inventory was at report excessive, the corporate was not investing forward of the curve, not being attentive to the rate of the cellular app and what it was changing into till it was too late,” Schultz mentioned.

Shareholders have additionally skilled the frustration with digital orders — and see it as a vital space for Niccol to deal with.

“The issue you’ve got in New York Metropolis, for instance, is what’s the wait time,” mentioned Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief funding officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, which owns shares of each Starbucks and Chipotle. “After which the cellular orders taking priority over the in-store orders. [Niccol’s] going to should flip that one way or the other to get folks to spend extra time and more cash in shops.”

The mobile-order points have added stress on baristas. Burnout, fueled partially by the app, helped encourage some staff to unionize, starting in 2021.

This November, Starbucks Staff United, which now represents staff at roughly 450 of the chain’s U.S. shops, pressed the corporate to show off cellular ordering when it is working promotions. (Starbucks mentioned on the time that it was already within the course of of constructing the change doable.)

Channeling Chipotle’s energy

Digital gross sales aren’t the identical albatross for Niccol’s present employer, Chipotle.

In its newest quarter, 35% of the corporate’s income got here from on-line orders. The pandemic fueled a shift to on-line ordering that has caught round, because the share of digital orders has jumped from 18% in 2019.

When Niccol joined Chipotle in 2018, most of its eating places had already put in a second prep line devoted to digital orders, aiming to keep away from bottlenecks as on-line gross sales grew to become extra essential to the enterprise. That very same yr, it additionally started including drive-thru lanes only for on-line order pickup, which it calls “Chipotlanes.”

In his six and a half years at Chipotle, Niccol and his executives boosted digital gross sales via completely different promotions: sports activities stars’ favourite orders, limited-time offers, a rewards program and the long-awaited launch of quesadillas. Specifically, quesadillas grew to become a digital-only possibility as a result of they might in any other case decelerate operations.

Chipotle has additionally been testing automation to make burrito bowls ordered via its cellular app via a partnership with robotics agency Hyphen.

Cellular makeover

Starbucks has been taking steps to hurry up service and enhance baristas’ work expertise.

In 2022, below Schultz’s management, Starbucks launched a reinvention plan that included tackling bottlenecks via new gear and different measures to hurry up service.

Narasimhan has largely caught to that technique. This February, its cellular app lastly began exhibiting prospects the progress of their orders, giving them a greater thought of when their drinks might be prepared. And in late July, Starbucks rolled out its “Siren Craft System” throughout North America, a collection of processes to make drinks quicker and baristas’ jobs simpler.

However the issue for Starbucks, might require extra drastic measures.

For instance, the gear rollout has been sluggish, with roughly 40% of North American places anticipated to put in the brand new machines by the top of fiscal 2026. Dashing up that timeline might minimize service instances in half — as promised on the investor day in 2022 — and scale back the pressure on baristas.

“It is not a simple raise by any means to do this, like that is going to take time and coaching and funding and [capital expenditure],” TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles mentioned.

“In our view, Brian has super credibility, the place if he tells traders, ‘That is the reply to the issue we’re having,’ and may clarify why he believes that — he will get a go,” Charles mentioned.

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