- Starbucks General Director Brian Niccol is trying to return the brand.
- Challenges include regulation of long waiting times and issues with the mobile order system.
- Retail and marketing experts say his movements are a step in the right direction.
When Brian Niccol entered the first job at Starbucks in September, he had a game plan to get things back.
“We are focusing on what has always set out Starbucks – a welcoming coffee where people gather, and where we serve the best coffee, handmade from our capable herbivores,” Niccol wrote in an open letter at the time. He called it the plan “Back to Starbucks”.
The brand is facing various challenges, including long wait time, shortcomings in customer experience and issues with its mobile order system. While Niccol saw it, the mobile ranking had left the brand’s soul.
Comparable global sales of Starbucks decreased by 7% in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year earlier. Its performance was slightly better in the first quarter of 2025, when comparable global sales decreased by 4% year by year.
“I was trying to command a premium price for an experience that was rapidly deteriorating because it was a sub-premium, and so clients fled,” Dipanjan Chatterjee a Vice President at New York -based market research company Forrester, Business Insider told.
Six months at work, retail and marketing experts say Niccol is getting very right.
Jeffrey Towson, the founder of The US and China -based retail consulting Techmoat Consulting said Niccol is “rebuilding the entire client’s journey”, which is the “right strategy”.
He said Starbucks already have a great advantage – his retail trail – but now, she has to “revitalize the client’s experience and his reputation.”
“Real estate trumpets brand in retail brown. No one walks two extra blocks to go to one Tim Horton against a Starbucks. They go to the nearest one,” he said.
Niccol’s turn plan
Niccol again brought ceramic mugs to clients setting up in stores. Beata Zawrzel/Nurphoto through Getty Images
Niccol is trying to reassess Starbucks like a comfortable local coffee where people can sit.
He has Return ceramic mugs to the hot drink store, which he said will improve the café experience and re-prescribe the self-service air conditioner rods.
He is asking herbies to personalize the experience by writing notes for their clients in cups. Customers are given roasted coffee recharge.
To reduce the customer’s reception time, Niccol has eliminated 30% of his menu offers and introduced a new mobile order system. Its purpose is to trim Wait times in four minutes or less.
Chatterjee told Bi that because of its size, Starbucks It is likely not to be able to reach a point where each store feels unique and local. But it is making the right movement trying to adopt elements from small cafes, Chatterjee said.
“Raising the elements of the experience of the coffee house and their weaving on the Starbucks journey, such as ceramic mugs and doodling, does enough to reduce the sterility of a chain store,” he said.
Niccol has also made staff changes. On Monday, the company announced it would rest 1,100 employees. In an open letter, Niccol wrote that Starbucks are “simplifying our structure, removing layers and duplication and creating smaller, more versatile teams”.
A Starbucks representative told BI that the brand is testing changes in its staff, new mobile order processes and algorithm to improve waiting time.
The representative added that the chain would add more seats to its cafes to improve the experience in the store and to start presenting shelves and risers to share sections of ordering café and mobile.
Execution, consistency and training
Mobile ranking is one of the major obstacles to the Starbucks service that Niccol is trying to improve. : Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group through Getty Images
Hal Hershfield, a marketing professor, behavioral decision -making and psychology at UCLA, said the success of Niccol’s plan will It depends on how well it is executed.
“It It should be more than just a marketing and fraud, and something that is executed at a deeper level, “he said.
Starbucks’ efforts to imitate the feeling of a coffee in the neighborhood will work “only if it can actually promote more a sense of belonging,” Hershfield added.
Mário Braz de Matos, associate of Singapore Brand Flying Fish Fish Consulting Agency, said Niccol changes will require “continuous execution through the broad network of Starbucks in the SH.BA, so employee training will be critical.
Starbucks faces wider challenges, such as competition from local coffee chains and consumer evolutionary preferences, which can limit his ability to attract new customers, he said.
In global markets like China, Starbucks face “fierce competition” by competitors like Luckin Cafe, he said.
“Moreover, brand inclusion in markets like SH.BA means that there are fewer segments of unused clients to aim,” he added.
Starbucks brand recapture will take time, Chatterjee said – and while the brand works to create more a cafe vibe, it cannot allow to lose the speed and efficiency that some customers want.
“Sometimes, you want to wake up and dive into the atmosphere, and other times, you have to catch and go,” he said. “Starbucks must win both those cases.”