Starbucks is without doubt one most successful companies in the world and other businesses would beg to know its secrets which made a symbol of quality in serving coffee.
Both prospective and existing coffee house owners would love to be able to have access to those little details which would show them the right path of how to compete with Starbucks.
Starbucks continuous success has enabled it to accumulate huge amounts of cash, based on which it can fund large-scale expansion of operations both locally and internationally.
In this field, i.e. access to growth capital, Starbucks is literally unbeatable, therefore it would be wise for competitors to stay away from this sort of practice.
What should Starbucks' competitors operating locally do, in order to gain a competitive position in the market of serving coffee beverages?
First of all, local competitors of Starbucks, whether they are small shops owned by a single proprietor, or maybe family businesses owning small-scale coffee house chains, should study the strategy and business decisions and activities of Starbucks, where the latter has failed to perform according to the expected levels.
Cases like that of Italy or Australia, where Starbucks was taught hard lessons and had to leave the market to local operators who ran their businesses more efficiently and effectively, can be great examples of how smaller businesses can compete with giants like Starbucks.
Taking care of local customers and keeping a constant eye on them, by literally not losing sight of them inside and outside the coffee house is vital.
Once a customer is inside a coffee house in order to be served their favorite coffee beverages, owners, managers and staff should do their best so that specific customer not even thinks of visiting another coffee house, due to lack of product quality, service or any other reason you could imagine.
Each and every customer is unique and that is what local players should accept if they want to learn and apply the right method of how to compete with Starbucks.