Starbucks like a bank: the boom of prepaid card

Starbucks, the US chain of coffee shops, is actually a bank. Customers have indeed deposited $ 1.2 billion charged in prepaid cards of the company in the first quarter of 2016,  much higher figure than kept in deposits of many US banks.

According to data from S & P Global Market Intelligence, for several years Starbucks has its prepaid cards with which you can buy at discounted prices and acquiring vouchers, coffee, pastries and salads in the chain shops without using cash. It is an alternative payment system to the credit card that could replace by 2020 a third of the bank cards. It is also a very effective customer retention system considered by marketing experts. And the American giant can count on 12 million "faithful" which sells millions of gift cards on the eve of Christmas.

In the second quarter of this year, 41% of Starbucks transactions in the United States and Canada were conducted using the card brand. Prepaid cards are often used by consumers who do not have traditional bank accounts.

Meanwhile, on the industrial front, the American chain is about to take a big step in the tea business with an unusual partner. The coffee giant announced its cooperation with Anheuser-Busch InBev for the US launch of Teavana, a ready-to-drink tea. The new product line will debut in the first half of 2017 on the shelves of about 300,000 points of sale of AB InBev's distribution network.