Starbucks Coffee Company is back in expansion mode with plans that include opening hundreds of new U.S. stores during the next couple of years — and even more looking further out. The coffee giant expects to open approximately 600 to 650 net new cafes this year, including 150 to 175 U.S. company-operated stores and 450 to 500 international locations. China, Starbucks’ largest market outside of the U.S., comprises close to half of the international total.

QR codes are expected to play a key role in holiday shopping this year. Roughly three-quarters (74%) of consumers say they are likely to scan a QR code during Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, according to a new report from Uniquode. Forty-four percent of consumers are more likely to scan a QR code during the two shopping holidays for the promise of a deal, while more than half (56%) shoppers say they will do so for a promotional offer. Nearly 50% of millennial and Gen Z respondents are “very likely” to scan QR Codes during retail sales, and 46% of Gen X say they are driven by deals by scan. Gen Z (41%) and millennials (40%) are also driven by discounts and deals, followed by faster checkout. More than a third (36%) of all consumers are not “entirely sold” on scanning QR codes.

Months after rolling out a carbon calculator to estimate and influence the carbon impact of digital media buys, GroupM this morning unveiled a new version capable of measuring the carbon footprint of its client's media buys across various media -- both digital and analog. The new "Channel-Level Carbon Calculator" was developed in partnership with carbon impact researcher Scope3, and GroupM currently is working with it to engineer a new media-planning API (applications protocol interface) that any agency or advertiser will be able to integrate into their media-processing tech stack to seamlessly ingest Scope3's data in order to adjust their media mix or specific suppliers that do a better job of complying with their goals of reducing carbon emissions in their advertising and media buys. While GroupM will have a "first-to-market" access to the API for a period of time, the WPP unit said the plan is for it to be "open source" for the entire industry to use.