Starbucks’ Red Cup Revival: A Holiday Boost Amid Slumping Sales

Insights Flash: A Festive Turnaround for Starbucks on Red Cup Day

For the past seven years, Starbucks has run its Red Cup Day promotion, offering customers a free holiday-themed reusable cup when purchasing a seasonal drink. CE U.S. transaction data shows that this year’s results may offer a bright spot for Starbucks following its recent weak Q4 U.S. sales performance, suggesting that the company’s key investments to engage customers might be starting to pay off.

On this year’s Red Cup Day, held on Thursday November 14th, the number of purchases was 25% higher than the average Thursday thus far in 2024, a much bigger boost than last year’s 13%. This performance was consistent with 2022’s lift, breaking a multi-year streak of more and more muted results. The de-facto holiday also saw a 3% increase in average ticket prices relative to the average Thursday, indicating that customers may have come in for a more festive or larger drink than they normally opt for; however, this boost was a bit more reserved than in previous years.

While Starbucks had a successful Red Cup Day across the US, CE data reflects particularly strong lifts in the Northeast and South, with the West lagging behind.

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