When the traffic tide recedes, what do new consumption scenarios rely on to retain young people?

As coffee is increasingly integrated into young people's daily life and becomes a common consumption scenario on urban street corners, the commercial logic of offline physical spaces is undergoing subtle yet profound restructuring. Over the past few years, people inside and outside the industry have been keen on discussing the birth of new business forms and technological iteration. However, when we turn our attention back to specific blocks and stores, a harsh reality lies before all operators: after the novelty fades and the check-in craze cools down, on earth can offline coffee stores retain young consumers?

On the afternoon of October 31, the second half of "AiPartner Brings AI to the Front Line — Ningbo Coffee Life Week Scenario Innovation Exchange Meeting" kicked off, with a more practical focus. The second roundtable discussion shifted the focus to the actual operation of offline blocks, exploring how to attract young consumer groups through content innovation and enhance the overall vitality of the blocks. This forum invited brand operators from Daily Coffee, Yihan Culture, Zhonglele Coffee Art Festival and LeBRESSO. They have long been engaged in physical business and scenario operation, and have accumulated rich practical experience in relevant fields.

1. The Underpinning of Physical Ecosystem: Emotional Value and Long-termism

In the current new consumption environment, traffic anxiety and internet-famous filters have almost swept all offline physical stores. The four guests who are deeply rooted in the front line conveyed a pragmatic view in the discussion: purely relying on superficial online marketing and low-price drainage can no longer support the long-term development of a brand.

1) Abandon Traffic Dependence and Return to the Essence of Products

In view of the phenomenon that many newly opened stores rely on social media such as Xiaohongshu for massive online traffic investment, the guests pointed out the fatal hidden dangers behind it. Stores that only rely on low prices and internet-famous filters to attract customers will have their life cycle severely compressed. Such stores usually face severe tests three to six months after the end of traffic investment. Once the continuous investment from capital parties is lost, the store's turnover will drop sharply rapidly.

This phenomenon will quickly drag the store into an irreversible vicious cycle. Operators hoard ingredients to control costs, leading to continuous decline in quality; and the decline in quality will further drive away the check-in customers with low loyalty, and the store will inevitably go to closure in the end. Therefore, the guests unanimously agreed that instead of spending energy on marketing, it is better to return to the product itself, allowing consumers to spontaneously generate real content on the platform, which can form a more lasting appeal.

2) Break Away from Homogeneous Involution and Build a Co-constructed Ecosystem with Differentiated Positioning

In the daily operation of offline blocks, adjacent brands tend to fall into homogeneous involution and vicious competition. To this end, the guests put forward the solution of "ecosystem co-construction". A good consumption ecosystem and individual operators will form positive interaction, and the operation status of each store directly determines whether the whole block has real vitality.

When various coffee brands or catering formats gather in the same block, they can achieve complementary advantages through collaborative cooperation. For example, stores focusing on pour-over coffee make their single product top-notch, brands with roasting business form differentiated advantages with exclusive coffee beans, and jointly serve consumer groups pursuing high-quality life through precise positioning. Different brands dig deep in their respective fields, which can jointly enhance the commercial atmosphere of the block and allow all operators to share the dividends of the ecosystem.

2. Operation Rules of Offline Scenarios: Practical Sharing by Four Front-line Operators

1) Xu Jiamu from Daily Coffee: From Meeting the Basic Refreshment Demand to Providing Customized Services

In 2015, when coffee consumption was not yet popularized, Xu Jiamu opened his first office building coffee store in the Southern Business District. Facing the dense office crowd, he adopted a very practical low-price strategy, pricing common coffee types below 10 yuan. The store did not do any advertising and promotion, and operated purely by solving the office workers' basic demand for refreshment. By word of mouth, a store of only 4 square meters could sell 300 to 400 cups a day.

When the business shifted to community stores, Xu Jiamu's operation logic underwent a fundamental transformation. Community stores no longer only sell refreshing drinks, but move towards high-quality and personalized development. He will reproduce special coffee according to the preferences of regular customers and provide customized services. Under this model, brand personality is particularly prominent. Customers highly recognize the operator's personal style and the human touch of services, successfully realizing the transition from functional consumption to emotional consumption.

2) Yuan Jianfeng from LeBRESSO: Adhere to the Authentic Japanese Raw Toast System, Deeply Cultivate High-net-worth Customer Groups with Differentiation

LeBRESSO is located in Ningbo Heyidao Shopping Center, and has been operating steadily for many years under the general environment of economic adjustment. The store does not provide takeaway services or pay for traffic investment, focuses on three core benchmark products, controls the total number of products at around 10, focuses on brand recognition, and rejects price involution in the sinking market.

The user stickiness of LeBRESSO stems from its adherence to the underlying capability of products: it has an authentic Japanese raw toast system localized in China, and also has relevant businesses in Japan. It strictly follows the original formula and process, realizes product standardization relying on its self-developed system, and reduces artificial quality fluctuations. High-net-worth customer groups will reduce large-value consumption during the economic cycle, but are willing to pay continuously for high-quality daily food. In addition to stable basic products, a limited-edition new product is launched every month to maintain customers' expectations. When the brand opened in 2021, it once achieved a record of selling more than 500 pieces of a single type of bread per day. Based on solid products, it continues to provide emotional value for members.

3) Lv Jiakai from Yihan Culture: Activate Venues through Popular Science Experience and Private Domain Operation

Facing venues such as science and technology museums and museums that originally lack the attribute of daily repurchase, Yihan Culture breaks away from the traditional thinking of selling souvenirs, and chooses to redefine the coffee space from the perspective of popular science experience. They deconstruct all materials such as cups and straws into experimental props, turning a cup of coffee into a popular science prop that children can take home.

In order to solve the problem of one-time passenger flow in science and technology museums, Yihan Culture has established a powerful private domain operation system. For local customer groups, it launches a series of popular science experience products to attract children to check in frequently; for non-local tourists, it uses AI to quickly generate memorable content for communication. This innovation, which highly matches the business model with the popular science scenario, activates the vitality of the venue. In the future, starting from Hefei, Yihan Culture will try to create a larger-scale "Popular Science Consumption Festival" IP.

4) Chen Zhi from Zhonglele Coffee Art Festival: Strengthen Thematic Creativity and Atmosphere Building to Build a Block Consumption Ecosystem

After growing against the trend during the epidemic, Chen Zhi from Zhonglele Coffee Art Festival is well aware of the importance of offline atmosphere building for attracting customer groups. He pointed out that the core of holding offline activities such as coffee festivals is to accurately serve people pursuing high-quality life by creating strong scenario experiences.

In the specific planning, the team is good at using local culture to create a sense of contrast. Taking the Quanzhou Confucian Temple Tea & Coffee Week as an example, they combined traditional frozen tea with strong market atmosphere and modern cold brew special coffee, and linked up with the local sanitation worker group. The collision between traditional landmarks and modern youth consumption forms has spawned highly novel content experiences, quickly aroused public emotional resonance, and effectively activated the consumption vitality of the old town. Through scenario creation and brand recruitment, the Tea & Coffee Week finally gathered diverse business forms together, providing a high-frequency interactive offline experience field for young people.