Starbucks Tries to Save Christmas With 100 Gift Card and Mug Designs

Starbucks noticed a worrisome trend last holiday season: Online purchases cut into the foot traffic at retail stores, and that meant fewer latte breaks for harried shoppers. Same-store sales growth slowed. Based on back-to-school trends, the coffee giant doesn’t expect this holiday to be any better.

But this time around Starbucks has a plan to become a holiday shopping destination in its own right. The company will launch 100 different designs for its gift cards and cups in a bid to become more of a source for stocking stuffers instead of just a caffeine pit stop.

The gift cards in particular are likely to attract interest. “Starbucks benefited enormously from the consumer shift toward gift-giving cards instead of traditional physical goods,” Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz told analysts recently. One in eight Americans received a Starbucks gift card last year, he said. The $1.4 billion loaded onto gift cards was equal to roughly one-third of the company’s global revenue in the fourth quarter.