Catalyzed by the epidemic, the battle for coffee scenes began.
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “electricity suppliers Online” (ID: dianshangmj) , Author: Yang Niwa.
文 | 杨 泥 娃
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“I’ve almost forgotten what Starbucks is like.” Zhang Xiaojia relied on the instant coffee stored at home when he was isolated.
The outbreak after the Spring Festival caused coffee chain giants to close more than half of the stores nationwide.
At the end of last year, Starbucks had 4,292 stores in China, which means that more than 2,000 stores were closed.
The “third space” that provides consumers with a social gathering place was once Starbucks’ most proud selling point, but the epidemic disrupted the rhythm. In February, Starbucks China market store sales fell 78% year-on-year, and online orders accounted for 80% of total sales. Prior to this, takeaway orders accounted for only 9% of Starbucks China sales.
Quietly, the coffee business stepped out of the cafe and opened up a new consumption scene. “Contactless consumption” has ignited takeaways, as well as instant coffee online.
“E-Commerce Online” learned from Tmall that during the epidemic, the search volume for coffee on the platform increased by more than 100%, and the overall transaction volume increased by more than 80% year-on-year.
Last year’s new net red three and a half meals let the market see the opportunity and growth of specialty instant coffee. (See ” Instant coffee is fighting back Starbucks Fortune “). The promotion of the epidemic has only accelerated the pace of the capital,” E-commerce online “has just completed the acquisition of Sanshang A new round of financing has not been announced.
Before the Spring Festival, Ruixing announced a high-profile entry into unmanned retail, moving from stores to more subdivided offices, hospitals, and gas stations.
When unmanned retail machines spread throughout the office building, three and a half meals have become a must-have for white-collar desks, and the coffee consumption scene has changed, which also shows that coffee is being integrated into people’s lives more seamlessly.
The epidemic has catalyzed the battle for scene-based coffee.
100% increase in online coffee
“We are focusing on making up lessons and chasing back our previous progress.”
Wu Jun, the founder of Sandun Ban, was too busy to interview recently. Production was pressed with the pause button, but consumer demand increased. Resuming production after resuming work became the most important thing right now.
The epidemic has hit the food and beverage retail industry and transmitted to offline cafes.
Coffee enthusiasts at home can’t buy freshly-ground latte or cappuccino, and can only make a cup of coffee at home to “renew their lives.”
This presents opportunities for fine instant coffees represented by Santon, Yongzheng, etc .: They started as e-commerce, guaranteed the taste of the coffee through cold extraction technology, and used unique shapes and diversified The brewing method takes into account the attributes of net red, forming a differentiated product from traditional instant coffee and ready-to-drink coffee.
This differentiation includes both price and product positioning, as well as extending more diverse consumption scenarios and needs.
Starbucks and other boutique cafes have an average cup price of more than 30 yuan. The price of Ruixing is between 10 yuan and 20 yuan. The price of coffee for the whole family and 7-11 convenience stores is about 10 yuan. The traditional instant coffee represented by Maxwell only needs 1 yuan to 3 yuan.
The “boutique instant”, led by three and a half tons, just cut into the blank price range of 5-10 yuan.
Super fast soluble, easy to carry, and taste close to freshly ground coffee, these features open the “fine instant”Larger consumption scenes, whether in the office, home, or on the plane or subway, you can enjoy it anytime, anywhere.
During the epidemic period, this demand was further magnified. Tmall, the largest body, achieved an increase of more than 80% over the same period.
“In the past month or so, our daily sales volume has doubled before the outbreak, and users’ demand for instant coffee has grown significantly, and new users are increasing. “Wu Jun Frankly.
Along with the surge in capsule coffee, Kuncheng, a Tmall coffee industry operation expert, told “E-commerce Online” that during the epidemic, the supply side of the capsule coffee business was hardly affected. High repurchasability, with a growth rate of over 100%.
At the same time, the search volume for mounting ear coffee on the platform has increased, and traditional brands such as Nongfu Spring have entered the game at this time. In Kuncheng’s opinion, hanging ears are a niche product between instant and freshly ground coffee. Consumers who are educated by boutique instant solubles want to increase demand, and hanging ears have become the most suitable choice.
“Online packaging coffee products have a market share of billions, and the ears only account for 200 million, and there is still a lot of room for development.” Kuncheng said.
Diverse scenes of giants grabbing the beach
The “contactless shopping” in the epidemic has brought the online market to the fore, and has also made offline instant coffee giants reorganize their new retail layout.
Before the Spring Festival, Ruixing announced its unmanned retail strategy, and two unmanned coffee machines, “Swiss Instant Purchase” and “Swiss Cost-effective”, became a new capital story.
This has also become the “epitome” of Ruixing’s store model: coffee machine drainage and vending machine monetization. Rui Xing’s ambition is to achieve more traffic in scenarios beyond the goal of 10,000 stores in 2021.
While the outside world is still waiting to see how Ruixing ’s new story continues, during the epidemic, “drones” entered the hospital in Wuhan for the first time. At present, Ruixing ’s official website also shows the words of hospital priority cooperation.
“E-commerce Online” interviewed Rui Xing’s drone layout after the epidemic recovered, but no response has been received before the press release.
For Starbucks, the main scene consumer, waking up in a dream, the number of opponents outside the cafe is increasing. In fact, Starbucks has also been trying to broaden the demand for coffee that is not a “third space.”
With Alibaba in 2018, Starbucks has achieved the goal of providing “Special Star Delivery” service in 3,000 stores in 100 cities in China.
Last July, Starbucks’ new retail model of “online order, offline pick-up + delivery”, was the first to try the “Brown Express” coffee business in stores in China. In North America, Starbucks has also begun piloting the “cache store” model. After users place orders on their mobile apps, they can pick them up at the store.
The epidemic has caused the giants to fall fiercely. Although more than 90% of stores in China have reopened, data shows that Starbucks expects sales in China this quarter to decrease by about 50% compared to a year ago. Or as much as $ 430 million.
“E-Commerce Online” believes that the layout of stores may be difficult to become the next focus of Starbucks. Takeaway and self-lifting, layout in a variety of scenarios, will press the fast-forward button.
Nestle’s US $ 7.15 billion marriage to Starbucks in 2018. This means that Nestlé can sell Starbucks packaged coffee products in any scene outside the Starbucks store. And co-launched “office coffee corner”, capsule coffee machine and so on.
“Ruixing ’s drone mode earns traffic by laying for free. Although this mode opens more scenes, it is difficult to guarantee coffee quality. Previously, there were many players in the drone retail market, but it was difficult to break through this. The pain point is that Starbucks and Nestle’s office scene retail machines are specially serviced and supplemented to ensure the quality of coffee. “Coffee industry insiders told” e-commerce online “.
As the two giants of instant coffee and ready-to-drink coffee, the two brands have significant differences in consumption scenarios and target consumer groups, and each has a deep moat. This cooperation is more like a “take what you need” and open up a variety of experience scenarios from home, work and business, to travel and leisure.
Coca-Cola and Costa are also accelerating their holding hands. Even the layouts of the two major coffee alliances are similar. According to the information disclosed by Coca-Cola, the focus now is to accelerate the advancement of these three related tasks: self-service coffee vending machines, Coffee beans and coffee machines for food service customers, as well as ready-to-drink coffee products.
China coffee battlefield ushers in a new chapter h2>
In the late 1990s, when Starbucks entered China, desktop cafes such as Shangdao Coffee and Carving Time emerged. For more than 20 years, scene-oriented consumption of social and coffee integration has been the mainstream. Until the past two years, more black coffee horses have emerged on more vertical tracks, diversified consumption scenarios have begun to emerge, and an epidemic has made Chinese consumers used to consumption outside the cafe.
“The increase in online coffee sales during the epidemic indicates that coffee is becoming just needed.”
Zhu Danpeng, an industry analyst of the Chinese food industry, told E-commerce Online that from the first half of 2019, China’s coffee market has entered a growth phase, and the demand for coffee has further increased, and the coffee industry has also entered an explosive phase.
Coffee has become a phenomenal category in the food industry in the past two years. There are many new players in whether it is freshly ground, ready to drink, or instant. Not only Ruixing and even coffee are the main new Internet coffee brands. Sandton and Yongyong have emerged on the vertical track. Convenience stores such as Convenience Bee and Sinopec Yijie have also started selling coffee.
Across the traditional coffee brands, co-ordinates are constantly emerging. Coca-Cola, COSTA, and Nestlé have teamed up with Starbucks non-store channels to try to enter the larger consumer market based on their respective advantages.
All signs indicate that despite the lack of coffee genes in the bones, the domestic coffee market is effectively cultivating users, thus undergoing a process of quantitative change to qualitative change.
The basic market still lies in the huge potential of the Chinese market. The data shows that China ’s coffee consumption has increased by nearly 500% over the past 12 years, but the per capita consumption is still less than 5 cups / year, which is still huge compared to the US 261.5 cups / year Room for growth.
With the continuous expansion of the consumer population, coffee consumption has changed from style to daily life. Consumers need to enjoy high-quality coffee anytime, anywhere. Under the diverse scene layout, the coffee industry is moving from “people looking for coffee” to “coffee looking for people”.
Whether it is the cooperation between Starbucks and Nestle, or Ruixing enters unmanned retail, it is to solve the company’s revenue growth scale and enhance new competitiveness.
In Zhu Danpeng’s opinion, the epidemic has greatly promoted the new retail of coffee. Whether it is unmanned sales or contactless takeout, new retail has developed rapidly during the epidemic.
“When the Chinese coffee industry is still making big cakes together, more and more brands are entering this industry, and they are laying out different scene channels and consumption levels. The explosion of coffee is bringing room for expansion of the coffee industry.. “Said Zhu Danpeng.
Whether it is a super cost-effective instant coffee or a ready-to-drink coffee in a new retail scene, it is competing with each other in a more subdivided scene. In the final analysis, who can be delicious and convenient can take the lead Lead the way.