At COBA, we’re always looking for ways to make our customers’ lives simpler and more convenient. From the product itself to the packaging, we’ve made consuming coffee more convenient than ever before. We’ve recently integrated NFC technology into our packaging that allows customers to easily reorder by tapping their phone on a sticker. We’re redefining the meaning of “food tech” by integrating technology into the packaging instead of the food itself.
What is NFC?
NFC stands for Near Field Communication and is a technology that is used in Bluetooth and Apple Pay. It started becoming more commonplace in 2017 after Apple added a NFC reader in all of its phones from iPhone 10 onwards. However, the technology hasn’t been utilized in consumer packaged goods until now - by COBA.
Why did we decide to integrate the NFC technology to our packaging?
Our packaging says ‘The Most Convenient Coffee Ever’ and we want to make sure that COBA really is the most convenient coffee ever. Because of the current pandemic, a lot of things have recently changed to be contact-free and we were thinking about ways we could incorporate that into our customer experience. That’s when we came up with this idea.
How does this make the customer experience more convenient?
We've put a lot of thought into our packaging. The NFC sticker is placed at the bottom of the inside of the box so it’ll appear once you've finished all of your COBA bars. Then all you have to do to re-order is to tap your iPhone on the sticker and it’ll automatically redirect you to our website. You’ll also notice that there’s not a lot of branding on the outside of the box, because we wanted our customers to keep and reuse the box once they’ve finished their COBA bars.
How do we see this technology being integrated into the CPG industry in the future?
We believe this is soon going to be a widely used technology in the food industry - especially once people start hearing about what we’re doing at COBA. As consumers are looking for more and more convenient products, businesses will also look for more ways to ensure their customer experience is as convenient as possible. We just take pride in knowing that we were the first ones to do it.