Starbucks customers have accumulated a total unspent balance of US$1.628bn on the company’s prepaid physical and digital reward and gift cards, the coffee giant’s 2021 Q3 earnings call has revealed.
The company lists the total value its customers have stored on their prepaid cards but have not yet spent as ‘stored value card liability and portion of deferred revenue’ on its consolidated balance sheet.
The figure for Q3 2021 shows an increase of nearly US$200m in unspent stored value compared with the total of US$1.463bn listed for Q3 2020.
The company’s Q3 2021 call also showed that the number of active Starbucks Rewards members in the US grew by one million during the quarter to 24 million, a 48% year-on-year increase, and that Rewards customers accounted for 51% of the total spend in the company’s US stores.
“More and more of these customers are embracing experiences that effortlessly fit their lifestyle, with drive-thru representing 47% of transactions and mobile ordering for in-store pickup delivery or curbside at 26% of transactions,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said during the call.
He added that, in China, mobile ordering now accounts for “34% of sales, significantly higher than the 23% in the prior year and more than double pre-Covid levels. Starbucks Rewards continues to aggressively expand our digital ecosystem across major platforms, driving 90-day active members to an all-time high of US$17m, a 4% increase over previous quarter and a 71% increase versus prior year.”
The company launched its mobile ordering and payments service for Starbucks Rewards members in China in June 2019.
Unspent stored value on Starbucks prepaid cards nears US$1.63bn was written by Tom Phillips and published by NFCW.