The wave of new retail has long swept into the coffee industry. Luckin with more than 500 stores to hold high, Starbucks said that in 2019 in China to open 3500 new stores, as well as self-service coffee machines, coffee takeaway... Both new retail and the turn of traditional coffee to the Internet point to the fact that the coffee market is exploding.
This is determined by several factors. In the beverage category, coffee is a special kind - in addition to the functional effects such as refreshing, as well as the centuries-old coffee culture precipitation behind it, and the spatial value behind the café, other beverage types cannot be compared with coffee in this dimension.
The consumption power of the new generation cannot be ignored. China's coffee consumption has nearly doubled in the past four years, with coffee imports growing by 16 percent a year, compared with about 2 percent in the United States, CBS reported. The younger generation began to embrace coffee, and many young people became more and more accustomed to the daily life of holding coffee in class. According to euromonitor international, China consumes 3 cups of coffee per person per year, compared with 250 cups and 363 cups in the UNITED Kingdom and the United States, respectively, and there is still a lot of room for growth in the coffee market.
Since the first half of this year, 8 companies in the new retail coffee field have received a new round of financing, including coffee zero bar, friendly drink, coffee box (even coffee), small coffee, luckin, etc.; the anti-monopoly dispute between Starbucks and luckin coffee has made coffee one of the topics of this period.
Each coffee game emerges in an endless stream, and gradually differentiates into three modes, namely the traditional coffee shop led by Starbucks, the unmanned self-service vending machine represented by the coffee zero bar and the friendly drink, and the takeaway coffee model represented by lian coffee. In the field of unmanned self-service coffee machines, Coffee Zero Bar, founded in 2014, received a round of financing in 2015, a series of B financing in 2016, and a series of B+ financing led by koala funds at the beginning of this year.
Ding Bairan, a partner at Koala Fund, said that there are three main reasons for investing in coffee zero bar. First of all, China's coffee market is growing very rapidly, and there is still a lot of room for growth in Chinese average coffee consumption, and the growth potential is huge. In addition, the current domestic coffee market consumption is mainly instant, under the trend of consumption upgrading, the proportion of freshly ground coffee consumption will gradually increase; moreover, with the gradual maturity of the mobile payment environment, the smart self-service coffee machine has higher gross profit, stronger profitability, and a stand-alone model is better, so it is a more ideal investment target.
Increasing demand, how to cater to new users, how to enter the coffee market in the context of new retail? Recently, Wang Shunli, founder and CEO of Coffee Zero Bar, shared some of his views with 36Kr.
Talk about the market: unmanned self-service coffee machine, cut is the takeaway market?
Since 2014, capital has begun to pay attention to the coffee industry, and projects have appeared in clusters, but since the end of 2016, the industry has experienced a wave of coffee shop closures.
The biggest expenditure of coffee shops is rent and labor costs, many coffee shops in order to survive, have carried out Internet transformation, trying to cover the cost in various ways, such as selling books, boutiques, daily necessities in coffee shops, or reducing the customer's stay time in the coffee shop in the way of takeaway or self-pickup, coffee consumption is gradually fragmented and scene-based.
Some people believe that many new retail coffees occupy the takeaway market of traditional coffee shops. Wang Shunli said that this statement is not objective enough. "We have a coexistence relationship with Starbucks and with many traditional cafes," he said, "and the consumer groups we face are the same, and the only difference is that we are satisfied with the consumption scene, the difference between fragmented consumerization." ”
Although the new retail coffee uses various methods to reduce the labor cost of rent, in view of the heavy model, the speed of the shop is limited, and it must be radiated outward with the commercial circle and residential area where the crowd gathers as the core.
The self-service coffee machine at the forefront of consumption, the rent and labor costs are omitted, there is no restriction on the shop, and the traditional coffee shop cannot be compared. "The difference is that the coffee shop has to be opened in cbds, but the self-service coffee machine can be said to be placed where there are people, even in the North Fifth Ring Road." Wang Shunli said.
In addition, even if the coffee shop opens a takeaway service, its coverage can only be reduced to 2-3 kilometers at present, and even at this distance, the taste and flavor of the coffee will be lost due to the delivery time. At this time, the advantages of unmanned self-service coffee machines are reflected, the paving speed is high, and the recipe and production process are completely standardized, which can ensure that the quality of each cup of coffee is the same.
Wang Shunli also said that as each company runs faster and faster, this year and next year will usher in an industry reshuffle. "From the perspective of investment, the standard of many people's judgment before lies in the point and speed of the machine, but zero point bar believes that these are not the most critical, the most critical is the operation, this year and next two years, I think each family will fight will be the internal strength, that is, effective operation, from the point of evaluation, delivery, loss and other factors accurate assessment."
Talking about self-service coffee vending machines: Can you catch consumers by being closest to users?
In the subdivision of unmanned self-service coffee machines, the scene can also be divided into two types, such as the desktop coffee machine friend drink and small coffee that mainly focuses on the closed and semi-closed scenes of the office, and the opposite, the coffee zero bar aimed at the relatively open scene.
Closer to the user, the closer to consumption? Wang Shunli said that he is not very optimistic about the small machine that specializes in the stock market, because the stock market is too affected by the relationship between the supplier and the demand side. In addition, the machine that does the stock market is difficult to build a brand, close to the user, but not necessarily able to best reach the user.
"In the past, office coffee was free, the administration went to purchase coffee beans, coffee bean suppliers provided free machines, if the company introduced unmanned self-service machines, the unit price could not be set too high, otherwise users would not have a willingness to consume, but the low-price strategy was difficult to build a brand." Wang Shunli said.
On the other hand, in the limited SKUs of small machines, the coffee revenue needs to be divided with the company to cut the profit margins, and in order to retain users, the SKUs need to be constantly changed in different seasons, and it is difficult to sustain without a strong supply chain and traffic.
So, is it okay to put the machine in an open business environment? Wang Shunli said that doing incremental market is not a new behavior, but a demand-oriented retail behavior, which requires enterprises to follow the trend. "Coffee Zero Bar focuses on infinite scenes. There is no strict requirement to set at what point to what time, there is no restriction on what place, in the dormitory, office building, or lobby and canteen can be," Wang Shunli said, "we define the application scenario according to the needs of users, which is unlimited." ”
Talking about brands: How to build a brand in the middle of standardized products and specialty coffee?
In China, the first to enter the market is instant coffee. Standardized products such as Nestlé and Mac's have competed vigorously to enter the Chinese market, and finally Nestlé occupies the majority of the ready-to-drink coffee market. With the development of time, in the wave of consumption upgrading, people who pay attention to the quality of consumption and living space are paying more and more attention to the quality of coffee, and the culture of specialty coffee has risen.
Specialty coffee focuses on the selection of beans, the exquisite roasting and brewing process, and the best experience of consumption and taste, while ready-to-drink coffee sacrifices a certain taste and flavor in order to achieve standardization and gain market access. The unmanned self-service coffee is in the middle of these two ends, bringing consumers a convenient purchase experience that tends to be standardized, and ensuring the quality of the ready-to-adjust coffee.
In the domestic market, the players of the unmanned self-service coffee machine track also have you coffee, lyco coffee, toot coffee and so on. Despite the huge incremental market, the establishment of brand barriers is not an overnight occurrence.
How can unmanned self-service machines build their own brands and retain users? Wang Shunli believes that in general, the logic of zero point bar is to play from the bottom up, with coffee products as the core. If you want to really grasp the market, you must start from the product, and the follow-up channels and brand recognition are natural.
At present, the unmanned self-service machine of Zero Point Bar has been iterated to version 6.0, which can realize three-screen multi-dimensional interaction and provide users with a more humanized experience in the form of games and vocal interaction. In addition to coffee, Coffee Zero Bar has also launched a variety of freshly ground drinks, such as iced tea, etc., sku more than 20 kinds, a single machine can sell up to 100 - 200 drinks per day, the unit price of customers is about 10 yuan.
In terms of brand building, Coffee Zero Bar began to carry out strategic extension of products and brands this year, officially launched a new product series - Daily Coffee (Daily Coffee), invited the World Coffee Siphon Competition (wsc) judge-level coffee master Betty Lee as the chief barista, optimized the current coffee category, and the takeaway business is about to start.
In addition, Zero Point Bar also began to build its own coffee bean production and roasting base, trying to open up the upstream and downstream industrial chain.
In the customer acquisition channel, Zero Point Bar launched the "Million Cups Feed Program", where users who are not registered can enjoy a cup of coffee. In the future, the coffee zero bar will gradually transform from a smart self-service equipment production and operation service provider to a coffee brand retail operator, and this year will begin to vigorously develop channels and layout.
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