Second Cup vs. Starbucks - The Online Experience

The Second Cup versus Starbucks debate is an ongoing discussion in my house. On taste alone Second Cup wins hands down for me. (Of course Starbucks is so readily available my husband usually just has to cross the road to get his tall Americano.)

Lately I've found myself in Starbucks way more often than usual, and definitely more often than in Second Cup. I still prefer the milder, less bitter bean at Second Cup but these days my choice of coffee shop has more to do with web experience than beverage consumed.

Why is the web experience more important than the coffee bean? Well one of the great things about working at AIMS is all the people I get to meet. I'm often getting together with members and volunteers to chat about the industry and what AIMS can/should be doing. Invariably these meetings occur in a coffee shop.

Two important pieces I'm looking for on the coffee shop website: Locate a store map and nutrition information (after all I'm drinking 3-4 latte's a week!)

Starbucks uses Microsoft MapPoint technology. I can enter Toronto, ON into the search criteria and it shows me a map with the various Starbucks locations. I can zoom, move around the city by clicking on the arrows that border the map, and get the exact address in the sidebar.

Second Cup uses MapFusion. It only lets me see 10 stores at a time. By default it seems to have selected Bloor/Yonge as the default and shows me the 10 closest stores to that area. I can zoom but I can't figure out how to move east, west, north, south to areas outside what is currently showing in the map window. Not very helpful when I'm trying to locate a store at Bloor and Jane. If I know the exact address I can enter it and the location will appear on the map. Of course if I knew the exact address I probably wouldn't be on the site using the map :)

Nutrition Information. Since I've been consuming my fair share of milky caffeineated beverages I figured I better take a look at the nutrition information. At Starbucks I'm 3 easy-to-find clicks away from the information. And the ability to customize size of beverage, type of milk, and whip or no whip makes me think Starbucks really does know what I'm looking for.

At SecondCup.com I make my way through a bunch of annoying flash about each drink until I find a note about nutrition information. I need to call or email customer care for the information. I lose interest at this point and figure it doesn't really matter since I'm drinking more latte's at Starbucks anyway.

Of course there is much more to both sites than what I've highlighted here. But I'm guessing that finding a store and nutrition information are fairly common tasks among coffee shop web visitors. I might not like the coffee as much but Starbucks is definitely providing the web experience I'm looking for and winning my business at the moment.

Comments

[Diana]

I enjoyed this article, especially the critique of the mapping technologies. Can anyone recommend some good enterprise mapping/locator systems?

[oliver bendzsa]

Thanks for this article. It gave me the caffeine jolt I needed to respond… after many months of lurking in the AIMS membership.

I've been relying on Google Local and Google Maps (http://www.google.ca/local) to help me with my coffee shop selection. While the search doesn’t produce a calorie counter, it does provide links to other sources, such as restaurant reviews.

Tim Hortons is the coffee co. that seems to have it right. It would be interesting if anyone from Timmy’s marketing company would like to share on AIMS, but they do a great job of standardizing their entries and getting them all in Google (as far as I can tell). This is no trivial matter as each entry (in Canada) must be uploaded one-at-a-time.

I’m not sure the cost of tools such as MapPoint or MapFusion but if your small businesses or your client wants to be found, the service costs nothing and will help your customers and prospects find you. Also, the local listing you should improve organic clicks from main Google because Google Local feeds organic search results on the main Google.com site.

If you are rushing to check your business on local, you may find that you are already listed because Google automatically searches for postal addresses on Websites it indexes. A better and more reliable way to insure all your important business information is present is to submit it to Google yourself: http://www.google.com/local/add

Note: you will need to create a Google Account. Once you are logged in, follow the instructions to submit a business listing that includes your basic business information like business name, location, and phone number.

[Kathryn @ AIMS]

Hi Oliver - thanks for making the jump from lurker to participant! Glad to have you in this conversation.

Interesting point about Tim Horton's. The downside I've experienced with Tim Horton's is that they have a variety of types of stores. I once ended up arranging a meeting in a gas station :)

Would be great if the coffee shops added a photo of their store so you could easily see if they had lots of tables and seating versus being more of a take-out location. For example, at Yonge and Eglinton the Starbucks in the Indigo has a large seating area. The one across the street has a few small tables. Important info when you're meeting someone.

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll definitely be using some of the local search engines like Google and Live Search in the future.

[Katherine Came]

I had similar experiences with both sites. I am a Second Cup regular and am always getting invitations from them to fill out online surveys (yes, I did opt in for this a while back). While their online survey tool is okay... their site is long (venti) on flash but short (tall) on actual information.

They have added new features (like the ability to register your coffee card) and are clearly interested in developing a more user-focused site, but they trail behind Starbucks.com by 6 months, at least.

I like your photo/location information idea. My regular Second Cup barely has enough room for me and a barista so setting up a meeting there is not something I'd do. But I'd have to know that - when you are travelling and need a meeting point that little bit of information can be crucial.

[Kevin M]

"Would be great if the coffee shops added a photo of their store so you could easily see if they had lots of tables and seating versus being more of a take-out"

findbyclick.com tells you all that -- and more -- for both Starbucks and Tim Hortons

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