What does the Guming Shanghai pop-up say about street coffee?
Guming opened its first Shanghai pop-up store for three days, tied to the game Love and Deepspace. Orders opened at 10 AM and the mini-program showed more than 5,000 drinks in production within two minutes, so the store paused ordering after two hours despite rain and a line before opening. Three pickup windows and over 50 staff were not enough.
The event traces a wider pattern in street coffee and tea retail, where limited IP collaborations drive fan purchasing power and exposure for both sides. A prior merchandise leak added friction before launch. Front Street Coffee noted the turnout as a signal of how licensed tie-ins now shape traffic and demand for drink brands.
The collaboration event between Gu Ming and the popular female-oriented mobile game "Love and Deepspace" opened a pop-up store in Shanghai that operated for only three days, marking Gu Ming's first store in Shanghai. Despite the heavy rain on the opening day, fans still arrived early to wait, and just two minutes after orders were accepted at 10 AM, the mini-program showed over five thousand drinks in production, forcing the store to close its ordering system for a break after only two hours of operation. This article documents the bustling scene of this collaboration event, the purchasing power of fans, and the twists and turns caused by the prior merchandise leak incident, while also mentioning Front Street Coffee's attention to industry trends.
▲
Click to follow | Daily specialty coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop
Nowadays, it is common for milk tea brands to collaborate with popular IPs, and such partnerships often boost the exposure of both brands simultaneously. The limited-time event launched by the chain tea brand Gu Ming in partnership with the game "Love and Deepspace," which has a massive fan base, is a typical example.
"Love and Deepspace" is a mobile game aimed at female players. Its predecessor "Mr. Love: Queen's Choice" gained widespread popularity among female users after its release and accumulated a considerable fan base. "Love and Deepspace," which only officially launched in January this year, quickly became a new favorite among female players, gathering extremely high popularity and discussion in a short time.
Because of this, since Gu Ming officially announced this collaboration, game players have been closely tracking the event updates. To repay fans' enthusiasm, the brand specifically opened a collaboration pop-up store in Shanghai that operates for only three days, attracting a large number of fans who braved the heavy rain in Shanghai that day to arrive and line up before the store opened.
(The scene at Gu Ming's Shanghai pop-up store at 9:27 AM on June 21)
Considering the appeal of the collaboration IP, the Gu Ming pop-up store set up 3 pickup windows and mobilized more than 50 employees to be ready, striving to provide customers with a smoother consumption experience. However, the brand ultimately underestimated the purchasing power of fans—just two minutes after the store officially started accepting orders at 10 AM, the mini-program showed that more than 5,000 drinks were in production.
Faced with the tremendous pressure of thousands of orders, the store had to close its ordering system and suspend operations for adjustments two hours after opening. The mini-program only reopened for orders close to 1 PM, but for a period afterward, the backlog of orders in the store still remained above one thousand cups.
It is reported that although Gu Ming has covered multiple cities, it has never had a store within Shanghai's urban area. Therefore, this collaboration pop-up store can be considered Gu Ming's first store opened in Shanghai. Combined with the boost from collaborating with a highly popular game IP, this caused such a massive influx of orders as soon as the store opened.
Another point worth noting: during the process of Gu Ming announcing its cooperation with "Love and Deepspace" and preparing for the event, there were situations such as limited-edition merchandise samples being photographed and leaked during production and employee training materials being disclosed, which triggered dissatisfaction and resistance among game players, and related topics once trended on social media. The brand subsequently issued an explanatory statement apologizing to the eagerly expectant game players.
Many netizens were astonished after seeing the huge turnout at this collaboration pop-up store. Some said that although this limited-time event attracted the attention of game players, Gu Ming stores in other cities did not see such queuing scenes, saying, "We have one in our tiny county too, no need to line up."
By around 3 PM, the game players who came for the collaboration event and limited-edition merchandise had probably fulfilled their wishes, and the number of orders on the mini-program had dropped back to double digits. However, some netizens believed that since this pop-up store only operates for three days and tomorrow happens to be the weekend, if the weather cooperates, today's queuing scene might reappear.
Image source: Internet
Disclaimer: Some images in this article are from the Internet. For some content on the website, such as images, we will respect the original copyright and indicate the source. However, due to the large quantity, there may be individual images or texts that have not yet been credited. Please understand. If the original author has any disputes, they can contact the website for handling. Once verified, we will correct it immediately. Compiled and edited by "Coffee Workshop." Please indicate the source when reposting. If there is any infringement, please inform us for deletion. Thank you~!
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
