Insights into subscription opportunities from coffee

        According to the survey of the International Coffee Organization, Taiwan's coffee market has an annual output value of NTD80 billion. The people drink 2.85 billion cups of coffee a year. The average person drinks about 200 cups of coffee a year, which is equivalent to the demand of 16.7 cups per person per month. Coffee drinks have become an indispensable daily demand. Several chain hypermerchants have long sniffed out business opportunities, established a "cup sending" mechanism that has been in business for years, firmly adhered to coffee demand in their own brands, and created the experience that nearly 80% of consumers have used the cup sending service of hypermerchants. In the future, "subscription" will become an important solution to how to establish long-term interaction with customers. GO SURVEY digs key needs through questionnaires as a complete insight into deepening the subscription system layout.

        Grasp the subscription potential from the consumption characteristics of the cup sending customers

                According to the GO SURVEY survey, 61% of consumers are currently paying for the service of "sending cups" of freshly brewed coffee/drinks, and the service of regular deduction "subscription" of freshly brewed coffee/drinks launched in the past year has also been supported by 12% of coffee "drinkers", which shows that Taiwan coffee consumers have a high acceptance of the consumption pattern of sending cups or subscribing, and coffee sending cups has become a habit due to the convenience of digital apps.

        In addition to the competitive price advantage (70%), the reason why we are willing to pay for sending cups is that we can use mobile apps to receive cups across stores (49%) and to exchange cups close to home (42%) as the key elements of purchase renewal. Among them, the whole family's app to receive cups across stores (+12% vs. overall) is the best way to induce consumers to send cups, while Laertheff, because it is convenient to exchange cups close to home (+7% vs. overall), encourages people nearby to send cups.

        In terms of demand, consumers order 14 cups each time and exchange 11 cups each month. From the perspective of exchange timing, if the main exchange timing is on the way to work/school (42%), on the way to exchange (37%), and when buying breakfast (30%), they usually buy bread/toast (41%), tea eggs (40%), sushi/rice balls (36%). Especially, Laierfu's customers buy tea eggs at the same time (+8% vs. overall), while the whole family's fresh milk/soy milk/yogurt (+3% vs. overall), It is also a popular item for consumers to exchange coffee/drinks.

        As for the non 24-hour business copy, the time to exchange coffee is mainly to shop (54%).

        In a word, the alternative subscription method of sending cups has brought new entry opportunities and additional business opportunities to purchase other goods when consumers exchange.

        It is worth noting that consumers who send cups of instant coffee/drinks also prefer the services of exchanging points for goods (32%) and picking up fresh groceries in batches (30%). It is obvious that this type of consumers have the same demand for "whole purchase and zero pick up" for other groceries in addition to buying the drinks they need at one time. In addition to the use of points, "maximizing consumption value" has become the shopping characteristics of this group of customers.

        At present, the whole family (89%) is the most satisfied with sending cups of brewed coffee/drinks, and consumers are the most satisfied with the process of exchanging (90%), purchasing (89%), and transferring (87%) drinks. This shows that the convenience of using the process affects consumers' preference, and it also means that the whole family's App is favored by consumers for cross store collection.

                The necessary function to enable subscription mode: convenient exchange and sharing

        From the "one-time ordering and batch withdrawal" model of sending coffee cups to the subscription of "regular and quota deduction for instant brewed coffee/drinks", more than 70% of Laerte (76%), the whole family (73%), and 7-ELEVEN (72%) customers are willing to subscribe. In addition to being cost-effective, many stores, convenient pickup, exchange nearby, and sharing with friends and relatives are all reasons to promote consumers to subscribe, It is verified that the successful subscription mode must also be changed according to the consumer demand to solve the consumption pain points.

                Meet the needs of consumers and create a comfortable shopping environment

        There are too many items and quantities in a subscription, or they forget to cancel the automatic renewal, resulting in deduction and uneconomical subscription price, which has become the main concern of consumers when subscribing to instant coffee/drinks. Through a variety of optional customization schemes and rebates, it can solve the waste caused by too many exchanges. The design of canceling the subscription function at any time, reminding the notice of deduction, and unconditional refund within the time limit can provide consumers with a shopping environment that meets their needs and is reassuring. It is also an important topic for brands to master subscription business opportunities.

        To sum up, GO SURVEY summarized the following three "coffee drink subscription opportunities":

        Business Opportunity 1: According to the shopping behavior of the customers who send cups, besides coffee and drinks, consumers also have a demand for "whole purchase and zero take" for groceries, as well as the use of points. The future subscription service plan must be more flexible. In other words, it is not limited to the category of drinks, and the era of "everything can be ordered" is coming.

        Business Opportunities 2 From the cup sending service, it can be seen that consumers attach great importance to the simplicity and convenience of the purchase, exchange and gift transfer processes. Therefore, the good experience of the digital shopping process, which really delivers stable goods and services, will affect consumers' willingness to subscribe/renew.

        Business Opportunities 3 The ultimate goal of subscription service is to provide more flexible supporting solutions in many aspects, such as diversified service packaging, customized scheme design, and sound renewal mechanism.

        * Survey description: The "subscription consumption survey" is an online survey conducted by GO SURVEY Market Research Consultant on the GO SURVEY platform from April 25, 2022 to July 1, 2022. A total of 1558 instant coffee/drink samples were collected. The respondents were HAPPY GO cardholders aged 18 to 70.