I don’t know about the rest of you, but I love coffee. It is always the best part of my week whenever my friends and I go out for coffee, and it has become an integrated part of my day. No other business has capitalized off of this love other than Starbucks. Still, they are reaching a point where their other competitors have begun doing similar innovative drinks for less money. In the U.S., Dunkin Donuts is Starbucks’ main competitor. Dunkin is 27 percent cheaper than Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts will give you a higher caffeine dosage than Starbucks. If you compare a regular latte, the price difference is 24.1 percent between these two competitors. Even though Starbucks has been better at its rewards program than Dunkin Donuts, it still needs to consider its next few moves.

Part of their long-term growth period is pairing with Apple to innovate their first “Green Apron Store.” They hope to refine their tech and are receiving guidance from Amazon to reimagine their store experience to exemplify Amazon One’s “Just Walk Out” stores. Though plans have not been officially released, this is one experience no one should miss out on.

This is an exciting partnership between companies that are both market leaders. This could test new technology that Apple would be able to perfect, entering into a new segment of the market. Amazon could see how their One’s “Just Walk Out” fairs in a different atmosphere and clientele. These partnerships could also create unique and heightened profits clientele, and it could even share in more considerable losses.

This is one way they are trying to stay ahead of some of their main competitors who have come into their role of creative and personalized coffee like Dunkin’ Donuts. Though they have snagged the market for coffee, this isn’t satisfying their investors, only growing by one percent this past year. Starbucks has noticed this and has turned its attention to East China as its prize. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Tellingly, his replacement will be former Alibaba executive Wei Zhang. Schultz’s ambition to grow Starbucks’ store count from today’s 37,000 to 45,000 in 2025 and 55,000 by 2030 hinges on one day making China the chain’s top market. It has about 6,500 there today and pledged last year that it will open one every nine hours on average over the next three years.”

Starbucks will create a new extension of its brand and then enter a new market with already established coffee companies, which will be a unique and challenging challenge. Starbucks will have to make sure its strategic plans and implementation of its strategies are thoroughly combed to not create distrust amongst its investors.