What Went Wrong in the Luckin Coffee Black Myth Launch?

Luckin Coffee's Black Myth: Wukong collaboration launched on Monday and quickly hit Weibo's trending topics as ordering system failures, instant sell-outs and verification errors frustrated players. Many stores had not received merchandise stock, and co-branded posters soon reappeared on second-hand platforms at high resale prices.

The chain had promoted a Black Myth Cloud-Riding Americano with combo meals that included limited lenticular cards, cup sleeves and other items, and pre-sold bundles through livestreams. Luckin later said the system was repaired and announced a restock, with an estimated production cycle of about 15 days for the missing merchandise.

On Monday of this week, Luckin Coffee's co-branded campaign with the domestic AAA game Black Myth: Wukong officially launched. However, on the first day of the event, it was pushed onto Weibo's trending topics due to issues such as ordering system failures, merchandise selling out instantly, and verification anomalies. Players stayed up late to wait and got up early to snap up items, only to encounter situations like "sold out," "unable to verify," and "stores haven't received stock," with complaints flooding social platforms. Meanwhile, co-branded posters on second-hand platforms were being resold at high prices. Luckin officially responded later that the system had been repaired and issued a restocking notice, with an estimated production cycle of about 15 days. This article sorts out the complete process of this co-branded campaign and consumer feedback.

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This Monday, Luckin Coffee's co-branded campaign with China's first AAA game Black Myth: Wukong officially launched. However, early in the morning, before many stores across the country had even sold a few cups of the new product, Luckin was blasted onto Weibo's trending topics by netizens due to system failures.

It is reported that during the co-branded campaign, Luckin launched a new product called "Black Myth Cloud-Riding Americano," and set up a promotion where purchasing designated combo meals could grant limited-edition 3D exclusive poster lenticular cards, 3 co-branded cup sleeves, and other merchandise. Thanks to the game's popularity, even before the co-branded campaign officially started, limited-edition posters and other merchandise had already attracted a large number of players' attention.

In addition, to build hype for the co-branded campaign, Luckin also started livestreaming on schedule these past few days, pre-selling combo meals that included multiple merchandise items. As for the 3D limited-edition poster that everyone wanted most, the brand's host once said that you could grab it directly as soon as stores opened this morning, with each store limited to twenty or thirty copies.

Precisely because of the usual rule of "limited quantity, while supplies last," many people, in order to successfully get the merchandise they had been longing for, set several alarms before going to sleep the night before, planning to rush to nearby stores early in the morning to redeem the combo meal. However, what everyone never expected was that despite making full preparations in advance, staying up all night waiting, and arriving at stores right on time, they were poured cold water on by Luckin.

Early this morning, when many game players opened their phones and logged into Luckin's online ordering interface, they found that combo meals including the poster showed as "sold out" and could not be ordered at all. Another group of netizens who had bought combo meals in advance on third-party platforms went to the scene ready to redeem them, only to encounter the problem that the goods could not be verified. Some customers also said that they rushed into stores before 7 a.m., only to be told by staff that the merchandise had not yet arrived.

Merchandise sold out in seconds after launch, system verification problems, some stores not listing items... Even the new coffee had an "offline" problem. On social platforms, the problems surrounding Luckin's co-branded campaign with Black Myth: Wukong can be described as endlessly varied, thus drawing a flood of complaints: "Wukong hasn't arrived yet, but I've already been played like a monkey by Luckin," "The first of the eighty-one tribulations: standing punishment at Luckin!" "I've arrived, being a monkey at Luckin's door!"

Some netizens said that because they wanted this limited-edition co-branded poster too much, but were also worried that Luckin might release lenticular merchandise at any time and have it "snatched away" by other customers, they had no choice but to keep waiting at stores and enter a long waiting mode. As work time drew closer and closer, but the official side still had not solved the problem, a large number of consumers flooded into Luckin's livestream room and questioned the hosts: What time can it be verified?

In response, Luckin officially finally responded around 9 o'clock, saying: The combo meal system had a brief problem this morning and has now been repaired.

Although on one side Luckin's ordering system showed that one "combo" was hard to get, on the other side, on second-hand trading platforms, the posters had long been "hyped up" by sellers. Early in the morning, when Luckin's combo meal system malfunctioned, some netizens saw on second-hand trading platforms that this Black Myth merchandise 3D poster was priced at around 50 yuan. As the system was repaired, the related merchandise prices only then fell somewhat, but were still marked at over thirty yuan. At one point, more than 200 people wanted it, showing how high the popularity was.

Perhaps sensing fans' enthusiasm, Luckin officially posted a Weibo restocking notice this afternoon: Currently, the co-branded combo meal merchandise products of Luckin and Black Myth: Wukong are sold out. For this reason, the brand has already formulated a restocking plan, with estimated production requiring about 15 days.

Image source: online screenshot

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