What the Heytea Chiikawa Rush Says About Coffee Culture

Heytea launched its Chiikawa co-branded drinks and merchandise, and the first day overwhelmed stores. Some outlets logged more than a hundred drinks within ten minutes of opening, themed shops in Shanghai and Guangzhou took seven to eight hundred orders, and online ordering was shut off. Pickup lines stretched for meters, with waits of one to two hours and some customers leaving after three hours.

The mini-program also showed orders as ready before drinks reached the pickup counter, adding to the on-site confusion. Chiikawa, serialized since 2020, has a large young fan base that reliably queues for brand tie-ins, so demand was predictable. The episode points to a gap between marketing reach and the operational capacity of coffee culture brands during sudden traffic spikes.

Heytea's co-branding collaboration with the popular Japanese anime "Chiikawa" officially launched today, instantly igniting the buying frenzy of fans and consumers. Although the brand had stocked up enough merchandise in advance to avoid the embarrassment of items selling out in seconds, the massive volume of orders still caught the stores off guard: some stores had over a hundred drinks backed up within ten minutes of opening, and themed stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities received as many as seven to eight hundred orders, forcing them to shut down their online ordering channels. On-site pickup lines stretched for several meters, with many consumers waiting one to two hours to get their drinks and merchandise, and some even waiting three hours in vain. At the same time, the mini-program showed "order ready" in advance while the drinks could not be found in the pickup area, further aggravating the on-site chaos. Behind the popularity of this co-branding campaign, the brand's operational shortcomings in handling instantaneous traffic surges have also been exposed.

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This morning, Heytea's co-branding collaboration with the popular Japanese anime "Chiikawa" officially kicked off.

It is understood that this Japanese-created anime work "Chiikawa," since its serialization began in 2020, has quickly captured a large fan base with its cute art style and fun plot. The three protagonists in the manga—Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi—have seen their popularity soar thanks to their adorable images, becoming "top-tier stars" pursued in many countries. Whenever they collaborate with a brand, they always trigger young consumers to line up and snap up merchandise.

For this reason, when Heytea previously announced on social media that its first collaboration partner for 2025 would be "Chiikawa," both anime fans and Heytea users were pleasantly surprised, closely following the brand's collaboration updates and preparing their buying strategies in advance, just waiting for the event to begin so they could use their fast fingers to grab the limited-edition merchandise.

So early this morning, within ten minutes of opening, some Heytea stores showed over a hundred drinks waiting to be made, the receipt printers on the shelves continuously spitting out printed labels, and the staff, having just finished opening preparations, quickly switched to milk tea-shaking mode, with the bar area bustling with activity.

As news of the event gradually spread, a massive influx of orders poured into Heytea stores across the country, and themed merchandise such as collaboration cups, metal badges, and acrylic standees sold out one after another shortly after stores opened. Collaboration-themed stores in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities received seven to eight hundred orders in a short period, causing stores to accumulate a large backlog of unfinished orders, and some stores had to temporarily close their online ordering channels to ease the pressure in-store.

However, when consumers excitedly rushed to the stores, what greeted them was a long line stretching from the pickup area all the way several meters outside the store. It is reported that Heytea's designated collaboration set menus could only be ordered through the mini-program, and had to be picked up in-store, with no delivery support. Because of this, many users who successfully placed orders flocked to the store pickup areas, and customers arriving later nearly thought they had wandered into a wet market, with waiting customers everywhere they looked.

According to feedback from customers queuing on-site, although staff made timely adjustments based on the order surge, the production efficiency of many stores still could not meet demand. Many consumers had to wait one to two hours on-site to get their drinks and merchandise, and some even had to wait up to 3 hours before they could stand in front of the pickup area and watch staff make their drinks on the spot.

In addition, some customers said that the chaos at the store pickup areas was partly related to the official mini-program showing "order ready" in advance. Many users said they only rushed to the store after seeing the mini-program notification that their order was ready, only to be unable to find their drinks in the pickup area, and instead had to wait in the store for staff to make them on the spot.

Compared with previous collaborations such as with Sanrio, many users admitted that the brand may have stocked enough store inventory for this event, avoiding the situation where merchandise sold out in seconds, and also satisfying the needs of most users who "buy the box for the pearl." However, stores failed to promptly handle the massive influx of orders, resulting in excessively long wait times for customers and chaotic order at the pickup areas, greatly affecting fans' experience of the event.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.