Planning to Open a Coffee Shop? Answer Eight Questions First
Opening a coffee shop during pandemic disruptions is possible, but success depends on planning before spending. Owners should settle seven questions first: why open, who runs daily operations, which customers to attract, what to sell, store style, location, and opening timing. Capital comes last, because it is a variable when the other answers are unclear.
A workable model is a small community shop paired with delivery, supported by online platform operations and steady regulars. Positioning must be decided early, whether the shop leans toward specialty coffee or an internet-famous look. Brands such as Front Street Coffee emphasize stable quality and product innovation. Anyone asking how much does it cost to open up a coffee shop? should first know what the shop is for.
Repeated pandemic disruptions have put physical coffee shops through one test after another, yet some owners have still managed to break through. The question is not whether you can open a shop, but whether you have thought clearly about your target customers, product positioning, and store style before opening. Starting from eight key questions, this article analyzes the positioning differences between specialty coffee and internet-famous coffee, proposes an efficient model of a small community shop plus delivery, and emphasizes the importance of online platform operations and cultivating regular customers. It also shares the ideas of brands such as Front Street Coffee on stable quality and product innovation, helping coffee lovers and entrepreneurs clarify their direction and reduce the risk of opening a shop.
"Under the pandemic, can a physical coffee shop still do business?" Yes, it definitely can.
"Is it really crazy to open a coffee shop during the pandemic?" No! Really no!
Although there were many cases of shops closing down during the pandemic, there were also owners who managed to thrive. These successes cannot be explained away with a single phrase like "good luck, they survived the pandemic." Behind accidental success, there is often ample planning and preparation for both the present and the future.
We often see only the result of failure without digging into the reasons, casually dismissing it with "he was just unlucky." That is not the case. Many failed cases are rooted in unclear positioning: who the target customers are, what route the shop takes, what the sales strategy is—none of these were thought through.
Before opening a shop, ask yourself 8 questions (be sure to think in order!)
Why open this shop? Who will be responsible for daily operations? (A real example around me: the coffee shop had already opened, but the two owners still had not agreed on the division of labor and started arguing over who would get up early to open the door) What kind of customers do you want to attract? What will you mainly sell to customers? What style will you use? Where will you open? When will you open? How much startup capital do you need?
That's right, capital should be considered last. When the first seven questions have no clear answers, capital will always be a variable. Many owners impulsively open a shop as soon as they have some money, and more than 60% of them are not clear about their target users and main products; they simply feel that more and more people are drinking coffee now, so once the door opens, people will naturally come.
Some also believe that as long as my coffee is specialty enough, people who know it will definitely find their way to me. They won't. Business relies on promotion and word of mouth. If you are not even clear about your target users, you can only "fish for a needle in the ocean" on social platforms. This approach is not completely unworkable, but it is by no means a long-term solution.
Only by first locking onto target users—can you determine product positioning—can you determine shop positioning—can you determine the direction of promotion.
Waiting until the shop is open to think about promotion is already too late! Because you do not know what to write, nor do you know to whom you should speak. Perhaps many people think that customers influenced by specialty coffee culture or driven by internet-famous traffic are the most ideal target. But in reality, this traffic is very limited, and the repurchase rate is low. The reason is simple: the pricing is too high.
Specialty coffee emphasizes bean quality, brewing standards, and the barista's own value, but not many people truly know how to appreciate it. "That's not right! There are obviously many people who drink specialty coffee!" That is because you are inside the specialty coffee circle. Ordinary consumers will not think that the value of this cup of coffee includes the high cost of the beans and the barista's wisdom. You have a thousand explanations for why it is expensive, but not a single reason that can persuade mass consumers.
If the target is consumers within the coffee circle, then you must first improve your own level, including knowledge reserves, technical mastery, and so on. If even the owner is not persuasive, how can they retain the stomachs of the coffee people who come?
Internet-famous coffee pursues uniqueness in store decoration and style. Both decoration and equipment require large investments, and these high costs will ultimately be passed on to product prices. If promotion can be done well before opening, this style can indeed gain very high traffic in a short period of time. But once the hype passes, it is difficult to form repeat purchases among people keen on check-in visits, and the frequency of high-priced consumption will not be too high either.
If the target is customers who come for internet-famous check-ins, then you need to think through product innovation and regularly launch a series of activities, constantly innovating according to mainstream consumption trends, in order to gain the attention of more novelty-seeking consumers.
After determining the target users, main products, and shop style, then consider where to open the shop.
If you first find a shop space and then decide on users, products, and style, the result will definitely be very passive, because the geographic location and surrounding traffic will limit many things, and shop rent is often the highest-cost item in the process of opening a shop.
Rushing to rent a shop without any clear idea, then spending time thinking about how to renovate, or making major changes while renovating, or only starting to finalize the menu and promotional materials after renovation is completed—what you waste is not only your own time and costs, but also every day's expensive rent.
Under the pandemic, is it really unsuitable to open a coffee shop? Not at all.
Although chain brands are rapidly distributing stores continuously, independent cafes give consumers many things that chain coffee shops cannot: one is human warmth, and the other is a slow-paced environment.
Therefore, if you choose to open a shop at this time, you can try opening in a community, but do not be too far from bustling areas. Compared with opening in a location with high foot traffic, the rent of a community shop will be considerably lower, and when people from nearby bustling areas use apps to search for food or nearby options, the shop can gain more exposure.
The shop area does not need to be too large. A small community shop plus delivery can satisfy a small number of customers' needs for space and specialty coffee, while also not lacking the attention and spending of mass consumers. Under the pandemic, coffee shops need even more to be "small and efficient," and at the same time need complete standardized operating procedures to improve order efficiency. This can not only reduce operational pressure, but also strengthen risk resistance.
Note: while focusing on efficiency, you must also value output quality and serve every customer who comes to the shop well.
The most important thing in opening a shop is having a customer base. Be good at observing what your customers like, what time they usually come, and other characteristics, keep these small details in mind, and make timely adjustments. Customers will also notice what changes you have made, thereby increasing their satisfaction with the shop and further becoming loyal customers. The cost of developing a new customer is several times that of retaining a regular customer! Cultivating regular customers is the most valuable shop-opening model.
Stable quality, continuous innovation, and reasonable pricing are the prerequisites for a cafe's sustainable operation.
You need classic products to retain customers and innovative products to attract customers. In the approach to product innovation, you should focus not only on the appearance of the product, but also on whether the taste of the product can be accepted by the general public. You cannot abandon the flavor pairing between ingredients just for the sake of innovation. The cost of product development and the cost of production must both be controlled, so that the pricing of the product can be more easily accepted by consumers.
Combining with online platform operations is an important way to acquire users and promote the brand at low cost.
Platform livestreaming is actually a very good and low-cost way to promote. The pandemic has made more consumers accustomed to shopping online and obtaining discounts online, so newly opened coffee shops can promote through livestreams on various video and e-commerce platforms. Although very few people will watch at first, do not give up because of that. Even if only one person is watching, you must keep doing it, because you never know how many users may come across your livestream.
Launching coupons and promotional activities through online livestreaming, or answering coffee knowledge questions online and interacting with viewers through livestreams, can effectively increase brand exposure and enhance consumers' trust in the brand. Offline, you should also establish a membership system and member discount activities to increase customers' repurchase rate.
Under the pandemic, opening a coffee shop is possible! But you must pay close attention to product quality and customer service. At present, the coffee market is continuously expanding downward, and everyone's goal should not remain only on a small portion of specialty coffee consumers; more attention should be paid to the needs of mass consumers.
Image source: Internet
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
