Starbucks to Refund 'Gifticon' Balances Starting Year-End

Starting as early as the end of this year, Starbucks will allow customers to receive change when purchasing products priced lower than the value of their gifticons.

A Starbucks barista preparing a beverage. [Photo by Starbucks]

According to industry sources on the 4th, Starbucks Korea is working on improving its payment system to enable customers to buy products cheaper than the value of their physical gift certificates and receive the difference as change. This is expected to be implemented in stores as early as December this year.

Currently, customers can only purchase products that are priced the same as or higher than the amount indicated on physical gift certificates such as gifticons. Even if they order a lower-priced product and forfeit the difference, the payment does not go through, which has been criticized for causing unnecessary spending.

A Starbucks representative said, "There have been consumer inconveniences related to gifticons, so we are proactively working on system improvements," adding, "Since the payment system needs to be completely revamped, it will take some time, but it is expected to be completed by December this year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.