March 13, 2023
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
With its Starbucks Odyssey rewards program on Ethereum sidechain network Polygon, which is currently in beta for a small number of customers, Starbucks is making big strides into Web3. It has already given a few free reward NFTs to early adopters and last week released its first paid collectible.
Here’s what we know:
At 3 p.m. ET last Thursday, Starbucks Odyssey launched the limited edition Siren Collection for its beta users, offering up to 2,000 NFTs for $100 each. Each one-of-a-kind piece of art is based on the brand’s trademark logo, which the company has called a “super mermaid.”
In a statement about the NFT drop, the company said, “As Starbucks has grown over the years, the Siren has been right there with us, adapting and evolving to reflect the brand and the culture.” The 2,000 pieces will be based on five different “expressions” of Siren that show how her “journey from local Seattle celebrity to revered global icon.”
Each user can buy up to two premium NFT stamps. Each stamp comes with 1,500 extra points that can be used to “level up” a user’s Odyssey account and get prizes in the future.
Starbucks launched the Odyssey closed beta in December, with a representative telling Decrypt soon after that the company had seen “unprecedented interest” from users wishing to join what’s been billed as a next-generation evolution of the existing Starbucks Rewards program.
Since then, Starbucks has given away four free Polygon-based NFTs to users for completing certain in-app challenges. The NFTs were rewarded for completing trivia challenges about the company or ordering Starbucks food and drinks or gift cards.
Even though the first Starbucks NFT, the Holiday Cheer Edition 1 stamp, was free, it now sells for a lot on the secondary market. Many copies have sold for more than $1,000, and the most expensive one sold for $1,900. The Nifty Gateway-powered marketplace has handled secondary transactions worth $222,000.
Starbucks has said that its NFT-based rewards program would eventually give customers a wide range of possible rewards, such as access to exclusive digital content and live events in stores, as well as trips, like a trip to Starbucks’ coffee plantation in Costa Rica.
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
