Starbucks is rolling out self-order kiosks in South Korea and Japan, marking the first time the coffee chain has adopted such technology despite its principle of emphasizing direct customer interaction.
Starbucks Korea announced on the 26th that it will begin installing kiosks in a select number of stores this week. The company plans to test the kiosks in about 10 locations, including tourist-heavy and business districts in Seoul and Jeju Island. The full scale of the rollout has yet to be determined.
The first area to receive the kiosks will be Myeongdong in Seoul, a major tourist hub with high foot traffic. Starbucks will install kiosks in two Myeongdong stores this week, with customers expected to start using them by early next month. The company also plans to introduce kiosks in select Jeju Island stores next month.
A Starbucks Korea representative explained, “With the increase in foreign tourists, language barriers have made communication difficult. We developed kiosks to capture foreign demand in tourist areas.” They added, “Some customers who find face-to-face ordering burdensome may also prefer using kiosks.”
Starbucks Japan is also reportedly introducing kiosks around the same time. Japan, often called the “land of vending machines,” has long used kiosks in restaurants and fast-food chains.
The move is expected to improve operational efficiency. Other coffee brands, such as Coffee Bean and Twosome Place, already operate kiosks.
Starbucks had resisted kiosks due to its U.S. headquarters’ global emphasis on human interaction with customers. In Korea, Starbucks has maintained a system where baristas take orders and call out customers’ names or numbers. However, the company is now making strategic adjustments based on store conditions—such as during busy lunch hours when calling out orders can be chaotic.
Since late 2023, Starbucks Korea has introduced vibrating pagers in over 150 stores to streamline order pickups. The chain operates around 2,000 stores in the country.
Starbucks Korea has been a pioneer in digital transformation, launching “Siren Order” in 2014—the world’s first mobile order-and-pay service that allows customers to skip the line. Now used by one in three customers, Siren Order surpassed 500 million cumulative orders last year.
