Starbucks Korea (hereafter Starbucks) saw its weekly estimated credit and debit card payments rebound from the previous week. The decline in sales that emerged amid controversy over its Tank Day marketing appears to have halted. With an official apology from Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin and full refunds including prepaid balances, the boycott trend seems to have entered a lull.
According to Mobile Index, a data analytics solution by IGAworks, on the 10th, Starbucks' weekly estimated credit and debit card payments from the 1st to the 7th totaled 24.21 billion won. That is about a 12.8% increase from the previous week (May 25–31) and is the highest weekly level since May 18, when the Tank Day controversy flared.
However, the estimated payments in the first week of June have not recovered to pre-controversy levels. During this period, the estimated payments were about 7.95 billion won less than the 32.16 billion won recorded from May 11–17. The estimate does not include payments made via corporate account transfers, business-to-business transactions, cash, gift certificates, or in-app simple payments. Previously, Starbucks' weekly estimated payments were 23.69 billion won for May 18–24 and 21.46 billion won for May 25–31, marking two straight weeks of decline.
The number of weekly users of the Starbucks application (app) also grew, approaching 4 million. From June 1–7, the Starbucks app had 3,985,819 weekly users, up about 3.6% from the prior week (May 25–31).
Earlier, Starbucks was embroiled in controversy for allegedly conducting marketing that seemed to mock the May 18 Democratic Uprising memorial day. In response, some consumers began a boycott, and the brand even slipped in the KakaoTalk Gift exchange voucher category, where it had been No. 1 for seven years.
On May 26, Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin issued an official apology regarding the incident. Since the 1st, Starbucks has been applying temporary eased criteria through the 14th to provide 100% refunds of Starbucks Card balances.