Starbucks started doing this first a few months ago in China with Alibaba's Ele.me delivery service. In fact, Luckin Coffee, a lower-priced challenger to Starbucks in China, beat Starbucks to this business model and is gaining market share. In China, a pilot of the Starbucks delivery service started in August in Beijing and Shanghai, and it's expanding from 150 stores to more than 2,000 stores in 30 China cities. Plans are also underway for a Starbucks hub to open in Alibaba's "new retail" supermarkets, Hema, in Shanghai and Hangzhou. Starbucks has become a poster brand for in China for "New Retail" or digitalized retail that Alibaba and others are touting.

Source: Forbes December 14, 2018 16:41 UTC