The coffee business is busy.
On August 2, nearly 7 million Starbucks members were shocked by the announcement of a partnership between Starbucks and Alibaba, saying, “Starbucks you have changed.” As if sensing something, Luckin announced its strategy to enter the light food market one day ahead of its earlier announcement that it would report starbucks’ monopoly. On the other hand, Even Coffee, which used to provide delivery services for Starbucks and Costa, also launched a mini app called “Pocket Cafe” on wechat on January 1, vowing to create a different kind of retail.
These three may be described as love hate entanglements, a little cut constantly manage disorderly feeling. In a word, Starbucks will do delivery that Luckin and Starbucks do, luckin will do light food that Starbucks does but does not make coffee, and luckin will do new retail that Luckin and Starbucks do not do coffee.
Starbucks is an old power, luckin and Luckin coffee are “new Internet celebrities”, they will shake the coffee industry and even change the world, we can call them the “coffee three”. These two days have been engaged in affairs, “coffee three male” can smell what breath? Ordinary consumers are not aware of li, what medicine do they sell in the end?
Starbucks wants “variety”
Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang yesterday jokingly called the partnership with Starbucks a “wedding announcement,” so the question is, why would Starbucks want to marry Alibaba? Utilitarian, there are two key reasons starbucks and Alibaba should not be ignored.
One is that Starbucks should borrow Ali’s strength to elevate themselves. There is no need to say much about Alibaba’s ability. As for how to improve, delivery, membership system and digital operation mentioned in the cooperation are all new things to be added in the traditional genes of Starbucks, which will undoubtedly make a great change for Starbucks, which has been cultivating an area of three land under the line.
The other is that Starbucks will use Ali’s power to beat its rivals. Users have seen the rise of Luckin and Line coffee, but starbucks cannot fail to see it. Another thorn in the side is the decline in starbucks’ performance (same-store sales in China fell 2% from a year earlier) in a growing market, which makes it hard for starbucks not to blame its rivals’ aggressive attacks. And Starbucks with Alibaba, can do delivery, perhaps this is the Internet to reverse the decline of the best way.
As a result, Ali’s role is more likely to be a “savior” for Starbucks. What is the lifeblood of Starbucks? Is it the offline store it calls the “third space”? In fact, it is not, but their virtual assets – membership. This time, Starbucks gave 7 million members to Ali and asked Ali to help it tap its value. After all, this is the old capital. Compared with Tencent’s “half life” given to its partners, Starbucks handed over its “whole life”.
How about not giving up your whole life? Last year, Starbucks and Alibaba tested the waters by opening a smart store in Shanghai, billed as the world’s largest. As a result, this year has not been a decline, although it can not be killed, but starbucks in the past reform is too conservative. Look at rT-Mart these traditional supermarkets, after being replaced by Ali, at least have a new attitude, keep up with The Times.
Starbucks don’t get it? I don’t know how far we’ll get if we try again. So ali was given his life, forced by circumstances, to the point of no change. Anyone who knows what starbucks will become probably knows. First of all, it can be said that Starbucks has inserted its wings by taking delivery, although it is uncertain how far it can fly. Secondly, it is certain that Starbucks will make breakthroughs in technology and efficiency with the help of Alibaba’s retail facilities. So the simple answer is that Starbucks is about to transform, and Sooner or later ali’s scalpel will transform starbucks.
Luckin wants’ Third Space ‘
Starbucks will not change, luckin can change however, after all, offline stores have Starbucks as a reference. Speaking of Luckin, the small blue cup once flooded many people’s wechat moments, and many Starbucks members “defected” to the enemy under the temptation of free first cup. Some people doubt that luckin’s burning money is unhealthy. However, luckin can burn as much as it wants. After all, luckin has earned the envy of others in terms of popularity and flow.
This time, it’s 50% off, and Luckin is clearly heading for Starbucks. In its response yesterday, Luckin remained defiant, even going so far as to say “Starbucks is learning from Luckin”. Luckin does not know whether to learn from Luckin, but luckin’s light food is a bit of a “fire” at Starbucks, because Luckin’s light food suppliers in China and abroad are also starbucks suppliers.
Luckin is expanding its stores like crazy, with 809 already and 2,000 expected by the end of the year. All light food into the store service menu, but also the price subsidy, Luckin’s details speak for themselves. The first is that luckin has taken “low prices” to a strategic level, having tasted the benefits of delivery subsidies. Besides, luckin has completed A round of financing of $200 million to $300 million, which is the confidence of Luckin, and large-scale cash burning is the most popular method at present. Why not do it?
Second, the addition of light food means the complement of offline store ecology. The core of starbucks’ “third space” concept is actually to meet the specific needs of people at a specific time. With light Food, Luckin has two improvements, one is the increase of the richness of the consumer ecology, the other is the improvement of the store atmosphere.
But to be fair, it is a small thing for Luckin to do light food. After all, everything is to serve the stores. Without light food, will Luckin face the situation of weak passenger flow growth? This is a low probability event. However, luckin has the template of Starbucks, so the growth of offline customer flow is highly likely, and the stores are still expanding at a high speed. Luckin’s periodic development report at the end of the year will not be ugly.
It is true that Luckin is doing delivery with great fanfare, but the crazy store, do light food these things in series, the fact is also much clearer. In fact, Luckin is walking on two legs. Online delivery is attracting advertising at all costs, which is a leg with less muscle, or a walking stick. Offline stores should help Luckin hold up more customer flow, which is the main focus of the future and a leg with more muscle.
But luckin, a two-legged company, has to have a focus. The answer is “delivery is not a core competency”, which suggests luckin still wants “third space” stores like Starbucks.
Line Coffee wants’ new retail ‘
When Starbucks wants to deliver coffee, it reminds us of the coffee four years ago. Unlike Luckin and Starbucks, Line coffee pioneered coffee delivery and is now a “delivery-centric” coffee brand.
First, relying on wechat, the online traffic is “inexhaustible”, and users’ second and third purchases will become normal. Second, coffee delivery is an incremental market; Third, coffee delivery is a good experimental ground for new retail.
So these two days to do “pocket cafe” is even coffee on the online flow of a deep digging performance. The company also announced the results of its first day of launching the mini program, with 520,000 online cafes opening. Of course, we can’t be sure how much coffee was sold, but it’s clear how even the coffee was sold.
These two years in the new retail moist, there is a “goods looking for people” concept is very hot. This time’s “pocket cafe”, including all kinds of group before small procedures, even coffee is actually such a thing, let coffee find people. These years of trying on wechat can probably prove that Lian-coffee, which was born in wechat and started from wechat, has already understood the social relationship chain under wechat traffic more clearly.
There are probably two reasons why Even coffee is so obsessed with online traffic mining. First, we are in the wechat ecology to make things bigger, so much more, so thousand chat, so jingdong, so, not in vain; Second, there are too many brands for coffee delivery. It is best to have a stable online flow base if you want to fight with them.
However, do external delivery only on the line can not do big. Even coffee has its own offline presence, in stores it calls “sites”. Maybe it’s to differentiate itself from other brands, maybe it’s to cut costs. Unlike Starbucks and Luckin, The coffee line site is more like the front warehouse of “Fresh of the Day”, only responsible for making and delivering coffee, with high functionality and less service components.
In this way, Line coffee is exactly the opposite of Luckin. Line coffee attaches great importance to online while Luckin attaches great importance to offline, but Line coffee is fond of new retail. Why say so, because online + offline + logistics is the standard composition of new retail. On the other hand, it is ok to make coffee only online, not offline, or only offline, not online, but the problem is that even coffee to do new retail, both are necessary.
The latest data shows that Line coffee has more than 200 sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and is fully profitable. In addition, according to the latest news, Lian Coffee is planning to open flagship stores and image display stores in various cities in the second half of the year. However, one thing to know is that continuous activation of The online traffic ecosystem by Lian Coffee will surely bring more daily order increment, so how to balance the number of sites and capacity is what Lian Coffee needs to consider, and any failure in doing either link may cause interference to its new retail strategy.
“Sending out three Heroes” will not escape the Eternal “Three Kingdoms”
Starbucks wants “variation”, Luckin wants “third space”, and Lian coffee wants “new retail”. The respective development paths of the three coffee giants are becoming clear. One might ask, why this node? In fact, it could be said that the reason for their constant change is their indelible competitive relationship.
Luckin and Line coffee are already squeezing Starbucks, and Starbucks isn’t going to sit back and call on Alibaba, China’s biggest retailer, to help. In addition, Luckin and Line coffee are also engaged in a fierce battle for traffic and exposure in the delivery sector.
This is a real “killing of The Three Kingdoms”, just like the previous hand-to-hand battle between Weibo, Toutiao and Zhihu on q&A. What’s more, this “killing of three Kingdoms” will only become more and more intense, because in the future, starbucks, Luckin and Lian coffee will only become more and more frequent.
But there is one thing that cannot be denied is that everyone’s book of war, strategist are not quite the same. Starbucks has Alibaba, and it is not impossible to move into a comprehensive business mode. Luckin is unlikely to divest its delivery business in a short time, and will continue to consolidate offline stores. Even coffee in a short time will only focus on fancy online drainage, and combined with offline sites to continue to explore a variety of new retail play.
In the old days, they chased each other down the road, sometimes winning or losing. But now the wheel of fate has left them in the middle of a fork in the road. Starbucks, Luckin and Line coffee are going their separate ways in order to outperform their rivals, and the battle of The Three Kingdoms will take on another form.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110