Why an americano cafe fits China Post's coffee crossover
China Post opened its first national postal cafe in Xiamen, Fujian, on February 14, 2022, moving a traditional postal enterprise into the specialty coffee market. The store, called Postal Cafe, began trial operation and serves coffee made from beans grown in Yunnan. Earlier postal coffee attempts included a cafe on Daxue Road in Xiamen and a co-branded shop in Shanghai.
The company plans to work with Zhongyu Kaye to open more postal cafe locations across several cities, using its nationwide network as an advantage. The move follows a broader trend of brand crossovers in China, including China Post's 2021 drink launch that drew wide attention online. Postal Cafe combines postal elements with coffee culture and targets younger consumers.
In recent years, brand crossovers have become the norm, and China Post has also taken an important step into the coffee sector. Following the launch of "Youyang de Cha" in 2021, which sparked heated discussion online, on February 14, 2022, China Post's first national postal cafe officially began trial operation in Xiamen, Fujian, marking this traditional postal enterprise's formal entry into the coffee industry. Postal Cafe focuses on the specialty coffee route, uses coffee beans produced in Yunnan, and deeply integrates postal elements with coffee culture. In fact, some post offices had already attempted crossovers into selling coffee, such as the Postal Cafe on Daxue Road in Xiamen and the co-branded cooperation with "Qiao Coffee" in Shanghai. As the coffee consumer base continues to expand, more and more brands are entering the market through cooperation, investment, or creating new brands. Leveraging its network coverage advantage, China Post plans to cooperate with "Zhongyu Kaye" to expand distinctive postal cafe stores in multiple cities.
In recent years, brand "crossovers" have become a trend. Many young people take on multiple roles and become slash youth, and many time-honored brands and major brands have also ventured into different fields. Looking back at 2021, China Post once launched "Youyang de Cha," which quickly went viral online. Then on February 14, China Post opened the country's first postal cafe in Xiamen, Fujian, and entered the official trial operation stage. This move means that China Post has officially entered the coffee market.
According to a report by China Food Safety Network, Postal Cafe positions itself as specialty coffee, and all the coffee beans it uses come from Yunnan, China. The brand integrates the two elements of postal service and coffee, carries out cross-sector cooperation and business stacking on the basis of its original operations, and is committed to bringing a brand-new experience to young consumers.
In fact, even before this, some post offices had already tried crossovers into selling coffee. At the end of 2020, the Postal Cafe located on Daxue Road in Xiamen had already opened. The staff there not only had to handle postal and bill payment services, but also simultaneously took on the roles of barista and server.
By 2021, China Post had also opened a cafe in Shanghai—a city widely recognized as having the largest number of cafes in the world—though this Shanghai "Postal Cafe" appeared in the form of a co-branding with Shanghai's "Qiao Coffee." "Qiao Coffee" is a brand innovatively launched by the Shanghai time-honored brand "Qiaojiashan," focusing on the combination of "Chinese pastries + Western coffee."
As China's coffee market continues to expand, more and more brands choose crossovers and team up with coffee brands to launch products, and some brands even directly invest in coffee brands, for example, Heytea invested in SEESAW COFFEE and became one of its shareholders.
At the same time, some brands that originally did not deal in coffee categories have also added coffee products to their menus. Many tea beverage brands have added simple and convenient categories such as Americano to their menus, and have even turned coffee into a milk tea-style drink, thereby attracting more consumers to try coffee.
Today, some brands have even directly created new coffee brand projects, such as China Post's "Postal Cafe," Mixue Bingcheng's "Lucky Cup," and Qiaojiashan's "Qiao Coffee." As the number of coffee drinkers continues to grow and industry competition becomes increasingly fierce, more and more coffee brands have begun to penetrate lower-tier markets.
China Post's outlets are spread across the country, which gives it a certain advantage. Next, "Postal Cafe" will cooperate with "Zhongyu Kaye" to open multiple distinctive postal cafe stores in first-tier and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, so that consumers in more regions can enjoy coffee.
Image source: Internet
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
